Alicia Randisi-Hooker

Alicia Randisi-Hooker has been an active cellist and teacher for more than twenty years.  She holds a Master of Music degree in cello performance from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, and a Bachelor of Music in performance from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  Her principal teachers were Mary Fraley, Lev Aronson, Deborah Reeder, Hans Jorgen-Jensen, Valentin Erbin, and Laszlo Varga.

An enthusiastic champion of the Suzuki philosophy, Alicia was the first cello teacher in the Philadelphia area to complete training in all ten Suzuki books. She served as the Artistic Director and head of the cello department at the Academy of Children's Music in Fort Washington, PA for ten years. She was among the first graduates of the Music Together program of early childhood music education, and while at the Academy, watched over the growth of the cello program from one student to more than forty.

Alicia has taught at Suzuki Institutes and workshops throughout the United States, and enjoys teaching a variety of students from ages three to eighty. Her students have been the recipients of many prizes, scholarships, and competitions, including the Philadelphia Orchestra's Young Artist Competition. Her belief in the power of music to facilitate healing and to educate the whole child have led her to work not only with a high number of musically gifted children, but also those with special challenges, including those on the autism spectrum.

Alicia has performed extensively in both the United States and Europe. She has been a member of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, the Oak Ridge S;ymphony, the Shreveport Symphony, the Philly Pops, and many other orchestras in the Philadelphia area. She is an avid chamber musician and has performed regularly with Trio Spumante, an ensemble comprised of piano, violin and cello, in Knoxville area concert series for a number of years. Fueled by her studies with the Alban Berg Quartet, her  desire to perform the great chamber  literature has remained strong all of her professional life.

The mother of two teenaged children, Alicia currently lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with her husband, a medical doctor, and looks forward to reaching new students upon their imminent move to Ann Arbor, Michigan.