Ms. Hisami Iijima was raised with the Suzuki Method in Japan from age 3. She has over 20 years of teaching experience privately as well as a faculty member at the leading music schools like Long Island Conservatory in NY, Florentine Music Center in NYC, Louisiana Academy of Performing Arts in LA, and most recently at the Arizona School for the Arts in Phoenix, AZ. She was also a violin instructor for the One Nation Program, a unique musical partnership between the Phoenix Symphony and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community through a year long residency program that offers private and group music lessons and performances at the community's elementary school and high school. Currently she is part of a team who coaches high school orchestras in Paradise Valley School district, an outreach program through Paradise Valley Community College.
As a Suzuki teacher, she has taught at the Greater New Orleans Suzuki Music Camp and Fall Suzuki workshop by the Arizona Suzuki Association. She has been producing students who have won the concertmaster and principal chairs in the Phoenix Youth Symphony, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, West Valley Youth Symphony, as well as All-State and Regional Orchestras. Her Suzuki training has included courses with Mark Bjork, Lorraine Fink, Linda Fiore, Michelle Higa George, Mary Cay Neal, and Doris Preucil.
Ms. Iijima has been a member of the American String Teachers Association, Suzuki Association of the Americas and Arizona Suzuki Association. She had served on the board for the Arizona Suzuki Association.
