Alexandra Pehling is the daughter of two music teachers and started Suzuki Violin lessons at the age of 4. Starting in middle school, she took lessons from Mark Bjork, (a pedagogy student of the renowned violin performer and teacher Josef Gingold) at the McPhail Center for the Performing Arts in Minneapolis. In high school, she played in the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra before she received a full scholarship for her junior and senior year to Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen Michigan, (a boarding high school for aspiring performing artists), double majoring in Violin and Voice and studying violin with Rosemary Malocsay, who was also a student of Josef Gingold.  After graduation, she pursued a BA degree in Early Music Performance as a double major in violin and voice at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota. During college she was a member of the Duluth Superior Symphony as well as many choral and chamber groups, performing extensively throughout the region on viola da gamba, baroque violin, fiddle and modern violin. Upon graduation, she realized she really loved teaching young people more than performing, and so started a 30 year adventure! She returned to La Crosse as a co-teacher of the grant funded Hamilton Strings Project (a Suzuki in the Schools model outreach program for students with limited access to music lessons). Over the years, she’s worked as a violin teacher at the Viterbo Preparatory Arts Dept, founding student fiddle groups there; directed the UW-L String Academy, taught at Leithold Music, Onalaska Music Academy, and maintained a private violin studio for the last 20 years. Her main joy is sharing the love of music with beginning students.

Her Suzuki Teacher Training courses, taken at the American Suzuki Institute in Stevens Point, include: Violin Foundation 1A and 1B with Edward Kreitman, Violin Unit 2 and 3 with Nancy Lokken, and Violin Unit 4 with Pat D’Ercole. Her favorite thing about the Suzuki Method is its emphasis on creating good character as well as a lifelong love of music. Her teaching style includes fun incentives for achievement levels combined with a sequential approach to learning. She lives in La Crosse with her husband Greg and rescued Great Pyrenees dog Finnegan. In her spare time, she loves gardening, composing music and improvising on the electric violin with her church’s worship band.