Society for Talent Education
Suzuki Strings Music School – Since 1965
![Meet cello faculty, Mark Eeles. Mark has been playing cello for 56 years, and started when he was 11 years old in a Suzuki strings program in Calgary with Thomas Rolston. He began on piano, but once he discovered the sound of the cello, it took over. When he was 18, he went to Julliard and got his Bachelor of Music under the instruction of Harvey Shapiro. After his time there, he pursued an education at the University of Alberta with Claude Kenneson where he restarted his Suzuki journey. Mark has been teaching at the Society for Talent Education since 1980.
His main teachers were Harvey Shapiro and Claude Kenneson, both of whom had connections to a famous violinist and pedagogue Demetrius Constantine Dounis, a contemporary of Shinichi Suzuki.
“Since my two main teachers all had connections to Dounis is kind of interesting, as my work as a teacher has been to take what both [Shapiro and Kenneson] said and apply it to the Suzuki method. Their philosophy of playing fits naturally into the Suzuki philosophy. I boil down what I think the Suzuki method is to: Train the ear and the body will follow, train the gestures and the music will come alive, one interval at a time."
In Mark’s studio, Suzuki Volume 1 - 3 is about “training the ear and the body will follow”, and Volume 4 and above is more about training the exact gestures that the ears guide.
“We want to make sure that what we hear and what we feel, is one. ‘Mother tongue’ is about hearing the music and learning it on the basis of how it sounds, [and] the ear is always what generates the movement.”
Read more from this interview on our website https://ste-suzukistrings.org/interview-with-mark-eeles/](https://ste-suzukistrings.org/wp-content/uploads/sb-instagram-feed-images/645959741_1357103426464428_5101836733763054079_nlow.webp)
© 2026 Society for Talent Education, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada - All rights reserved
Suzuki Strings Music School – Since 1965
© 2026 Society for Talent Education, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada - All rights reserved