About
Meet the coaches
Kit and Rosemarie now teach with Ottawa Suzuki Strings.
Rosemarie Klimasko
Rosemarie started playing the violin at the age of
five. She became the concertmaster of the Hamilton Youth
Orchestra and the Royal Conservatory Youth Orchestra and spent
six years with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. While
studying towards her violin performance degree at the
University of Toronto, her distinguished teachers included
Albert Pratz and Lorand Fenyves.
For many years, she was a professional freelance violinist in Toronto. She played for eleven years with the Pro Arte String Orchestra, and was a member of the Palm Court violin/flute/piano trio for several years.
In 1986, she moved to Ottawa, and co-founded SuzukiMusic. Her active schedule includes teaching a large class of Ottawa Suzuki Strings private students, teaching group classes, and conducting a youth orchestra for the National Capital Music Academy. Her career has seen many of her students achieve distinguished music awards at local, provincial and national levels, several moving on to prestigious music schools, both in Canada and the United States.
She has been a clinician at several Suzuki and CAMMAC camps and has adjudicated at Kiwanis Music Festivals in Ontario.
Rosemarie is based in the Nepean/Barrhaven area of Ottawa and is very fond of her feline companions, Stella Luna and Chocolate Chip.
Christopher (Kit) Barham
Christopher, better known as “Kit”, is a graduate of the
Guelph Suzuki String School. While there, Kit studied under
well-known Suzuki luminaries such as Daphne Hughes, Linda
Drennan, and Thomas Wermuth. Kit subsequently pursued an
undergraduate degree in music education at the University of
Western Ontario. While there, he also undertook specific
training in Kodally and Orff music pedagogy, choral
conducting, and Baroque period chamber music as both a
violinist and a violist.
Kit has worked as a music-oriented long-term care community activator with First Nations communities in northern British Columbia. He has also been a guest coach for a Quintet in Belgium, and has undertaken other activities in China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. Kit brings a deep understanding of Asian philosophy and culture to his work as a Suzuki teacher, and he has undertaken Suzuki teacher training with both Ed Kreitman and Nancy Jackson.
Kit teaches in beautiful Alta Vista.
Stellae Boreales Tours NYC
