John C. Klein is an experienced and accomplished professional violinist and educator. Having studied with some of the best violinists and musicians in the world, Mr. Klein now devotes his time to sharing this knowledge with his students.
Growing up in Stevens Point, Wisconsin he was one of the first Suzuki Method students in the United States, beginning lessons with Margery V. Aber, the founding director of the American Suzuki Institute. During his formative years, he had master class lessons with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, as well as with many of the leading early Suzuki pedagogues including John Kendall, Louise Behrend, and William Starr. As a high school senior in Kansas, he was the overall winner of the Topeka Civic Symphony's Youth Talent Auditions, which led to a full scholarship at the Eastman School of Music.
At the Eastman School of Music, he studied the violin with the renowned virtuoso Zvi Zeitlin, as well as conducting with David Effron and Suzuki pedagogy with Anastasia Jempelis. After completing his degree in violin performance, he continued graduate study with conductor Geoffrey Simon, as well as chamber music study with the Fine Arts Quartet, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In addition to Zvi Zeitlin and Margery V. Aber, Mr. Klein's primary violin teachers included Leonard Sorkin (first violinist of the Fine Arts Quartet), Oscar Chausow (concertmaster of the Utah Symphony), and Everett Fetter (conductor of the Topeka Civic Symphony).
Returning to Rochester, Mr. Klein was the founding director of The Park Avenue Suzuki Center. Under his leadership the Center nurtured a generation of young violinists, many of whom achieved leadership roles in the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and the Hochstein Youth Orchestra during their high school years. He also served for twenty-five years on the summer faculty of the American Suzuki Institute, as well as being a clinician at well over sixty Suzuki workshops and institutes in eight states.
Mr. Klein has also had a very successful career as a public school music educator. He served in a variety of capacities for the Greece Central School District, including as the Teacher on Special Assignment for Music coordinating all music activities for the district. He was the director of the Greece Athena High School Orchestra, the Greece Arcadia High School Orchestra, and the Greece Odyssey Academy Orchestras. While at Greece Odyssey Academy, he also served as the Artistic Director and Producer of its Rochester Broadway Theatre League's Stars of Tomorrow award-winning musical theater program.
As a performer, Mr. Klein was the founding director of Chamber Music, Limited and led his group of musicians in nearly 1800 concert performances, corporate functions, and private events. Locally, he has performed with Geva Theatre, the Rochester Oratorio Society, the Finger Lakes Chorale, and Opera Theatre of Rochester.
Mr. Klein holds a bachelor's degree in violin performance from the Eastman School of Music, a master's degree in education from Roberts Wesleyan University, and the post-graduate certificate for educational leadership from SUNY-Brockport.