Shana Guidi has been involved with Suzuki Music Education in a variety of capacities since the age
of three. Most recently, she was the founder and director of Monarch Suzuki Academy, a music
school in Austin, Texas. In addition to her administrative duties, she taught violin lessons and group
classes, early childhood music class, and parent education classes. She served as a director of the
Greater Austin Suzuki Institute, a summer music festival attended by more than 300 students and
teachers, and is a founder and past president of the Greater Austin Suzuki Association. Shana taught
Suzuki strings in the Parkway School district in St. Louis, Missouri from 2005-2008. She holds a
Master of Music and Human Learning from theUniversity of Texas at Austin and a Bachelors of Music
degree in Music Education the University of Evansville, where she also completed her Suzuki teacher
training. As a child, Shana studied violin with Winifred Crock in St. Louis, where she began playing
Suzuki violin at the age of three. She met her husband, David, during their graduate studies at UT
Austin where David earned his doctorate in Jazz Composition. They have two daughters, ages 12 and
8 years, and their family moved to Fayetteville two years ago. In her spare time, Shana enjoys meeting
with her book clubs and making regular visits to local organizations with their family’s Goldendoodle,
Sunny, who is a certified therapy dog.