Institute Bios

Laura earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Susquehanna University in 2001. She received a Master of Music degree in Violin Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy and a Certificate of Advanced Performance Studies in viola from East Carolina University in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Currently, Ms. Eis is a member of the Fayetteville Symphony, the Tar River Symphony, and concertmaster of the Pitt Community College Symphony Orchestra. She was the associate director for the North Carolina Suzuki Institute from 2007-2023 and became the director in 2024. She is a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and treasurer of the North Carolina and Eastern North Carolina Suzuki Associations. Ms. Eis maintains a private violin and viola studio in Greenville, NC, and is an adjunct faculty member at Fayetteville State University, Methodist University, and Pitt Community College.

Nan is from Hickory, NC and has been teaching music since 1970. She holds a Music Education degree from Appalachian State University. Nan’s Suzuki Training has been through many teachers, but mostly from William Starr, Hiroko Driver, Linda Fiore, Gilda Barston, Tanya Carey, and others.   In addition to teaching violin, viola and cello, she is the Executive Director of the Suzuki School of the Arts in Hickory, NC and the Director of the Virginia Suzuki Institute in Emory, VA. She also directs the Suzuki Tour Group of the Carolina’s which has toured throughout the eastern United States, the Caribbean,and 7 tours of Europe. Nan has been a guest clinician throughout the southeast and Hawaii  and holds weekend workshops through the Suzuki School of the Arts.  She directed and taught in the Suzuki Preschool in Hickory for 10 years.  

Nan is a retired middle school orchestra teacher and a retired symphony player with the Western Piedmont Symphony where she performed for 51 years.  

In March, Nan was awarded the “Creating Learning Community” award from the Suzuki Association of the Americas.  Nan and her husband Gene are avid potters and have their own pottery studio, Foo’s Pottery, where they enjoy making lots of fun and functional pottery.  They have three sons who grew up as Suzuki students. Her biggest joy in life is spending time with her 4 granddaughters and her family.

Betsy Hughes began Suzuki violin lessons at the age of three in Greenville, North Carolina with Nancy Kostek and later with Katherine Jenkins. While a student at East Carolina University, she studied with Fritz Gearhart, Ara Gregorian, and Joanne Bath. She received her Bachelor of Music in Music Education from ECU in 2001 and her Master of Music in Violin Performance with a concentration in Suzuki Violin Pedagogy in 2002. Mrs. Hughes has registered long term teacher training with the Suzuki Association of the Americas for volumes 1A-10. 

With twenty-five years' experience in the public school classroom, she has served school systems in Wake, Durham, and Pitt counties. Currently, she is the orchestra director at J.H. Rose HS and C.M. Eppes Middle School in Greenville, NC.

In addition to her role as orchestra director, she conducts the Eastern Junior Youth Orchestra, and performs with the New Carolina Sinfonia. In the community, she serves on the board for the ECU Friends of the School of Music and for the S. Rudolph Alexander Performing Arts Series. She is the past president of the Farmville Community Arts Council.

When she's not teaching, performing, or volunteering, she enjoys spending time with family. Her two children, Murray and Hazel Kate, are lifelong Suzuki students!

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