The Dorothy Gerber Strings Program: Assistant Director

Chas currently serves as the Assistant Director of the Dorothy Gerber Strings Program of the Charlevoix Circle of Arts in Charelvoix, MI where he teaches classroom strings, private lessons, and Suzuki lessons on cello and violin. You can learn more about the program by clicking here.

Cello Instructor

Learning provides knowledge while experience produces wisdom. Chas' teaching ability has been grown by both his training and employment. He has taught students of all ages ranging from children and adult beginners at local schools of music to advanced pre-college and international collegiate programs.

Chas’ formal training began with Cello Pedagogy taught by Prof. Emilio Colon of Indiana University. While earning his Master of Music degree from Western Michigan University, Chas served Prof. Bruce Uchimura as his Graduate Assistant which included teaching MUS-1000 String Methods. As a Doctoral student at the University of Oklahoma, Chas was a cello instructor and chamber music coach at the Norman School for Strings.

His cello teaching experience includes employment at IU Summer String Academy, St. Olaf’s Cello: An American Experience as their Artist Apprentice, The Kalamazoo Kids in Tune El Sistema Program as Lead Cello Instructor, The Marshall Music Company, The Bay View Music Festival, and the Norman School for Strings all as a cello instructor, and the Interlochen Cello Institute as an assistant. Having trained with Grace Field of the Kalamazoo Suzuki Academy, Chas is a Certified Suzuki Cello Instructor and is registered with the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

Violin Instructor

​While Chas began learning cello at age 5, it wouldn't be until the age of 21 that Chas learned another discipline: the art of teaching the violin. Since then, he has taught beginning violin for six different programs.

Chas began teaching violin during his undergraduate at Indiana University as a class pianist, assistant instructor, and lead instructor at The Fairview Violin Project. He continued honing his skills by completing Dr. Brenda Brenner’s Violin Pedagogy course, and later, teaching students of Mimi Zweig's classes with the IU String Academy. Since graduation, Chas has taught beginning violin for the Kalamazoo Kids in Tune El Sistema Program, The Marshall Music Company, the Norman School for Strings, and the Dorothy Gerber Strings Program. Chas uses the time-tested methods employed by the IU String Academy: the musical literature and nurturing approach of the Suzuki Method, the technical strategies pioneered by Paul Rolland of The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Mimi Zweig's perspectives from Indiana University.