Jenna Trunk began playing the violin and practicing the Suzuki Method at age 6, studying with Alan Solomon at the North Shore Suzuki School on Long Island. She knows that the loving musical environment she grew up in has shaped her into the person she is today, and she strives to provide that for all of her students. She believes that it is our job as music educators to be the impetus that helps spark the musical talent hidden inside each of the children we teach.
After attending the Ithaca Suzuki Institute for many summers as a child, Jenna knew she wanted to pursue music as a career. She graduated from Ithaca College in 2013 with a double degree in Music Education and Performance and then returned in 2018, receiving her master’s degree in Suzuki Pedagogy and Violin Performance in 2020. Her long-term training was under the mentorship of Carrie Reuning-Hummel and she has also taken training with Kirsten Marshall, Gale Johansen, Winifred Crock and Teri Einfeldt. At IC, Jenna studied violin with Susan Waterbury, Nicholas DiEugenio, and Calvin Wiersma and also spent a semester studying in London with Dona Lee Croft, a student of Ivan Galamian, from the Royal College of Music. She has held principal positions in both the Ithaca College Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, conducted by Jeffery Meyer and Octavio Más-Arocas, performing in venues such as Lincoln Center and Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.
Jenna has over ten years of teaching experience, working both in the public-school setting as well as teaching private lessons to violin, viola, and cello students of all ages and ability levels. She began teaching at the Ithaca Talent Education in 2018 during her graduate studies at IC, which included private violin and viola lessons as well as Pre-Twinkle and viola group classes. During the summer, Jenna continues to teach private lessons and has also worked at camps all along the east coast. Since 2013, her summers have included working and doing professional development at the Ithaca Suzuki Institute at IC and she plans to continue attending as many institutes and workshops as possible in the future.
Jenna is excited to be a part of the amazing faculty at the Greenwich Suzuki Academy and always looks forward to sharing her deep love of music with as many students as possible. She also teaches at Roger Sherman Elementary in the Fairfield Public School District and where she enjoys bringing her Suzuki training and Dr. Suzuki’s teaching philosophy to a public-school orchestra setting.
