Denise Willey

About Teacher

Advanced Active Teacher, Denise Willey, founder of the new VIVACE Youth Orchestra Program, Vivace Family Choral & Orchestra Camp,  was named 1997 Utah Studio Teacher of the Year by the American String Teachers Association. She has served on the board of Suzuki Association of Utah since 1995. Her students have soloed with many symphonies in Utah, Idaho, Colorado, and California; including two dozen with the Utah Symphony, and have won scholarships to universities all over the Intermountain West and back east. Twenty-two former students have played in the Orchestra at Temple Square. Innovative in teaching children to read music, she created the I LOVE to Read Music! literacy program, and authored Easy Steps to Music Reading. Mrs. Willey is an SAA Registered Suzuki Teacher Trainer, and a Suzuki Mother of six grown children, all of whom now teach music themselves, and have received state and national honors for their playing, including First Prize at the ASTA Nat\\\'l Solo Competition, 11 first prizes at the Utah State fair, and 12 solos w/ the Utah Symphony. One is professor of viola at BYU-I. All six have performed with National High School Honors Orchestra, as principals & concert master in Utah\\\'s All-State Orchestra, and in the Orchestra at Temple Square, including two as principal cellists. Almost all of her 18 grandchildren play stringed instruments and piano.

Experience