Molly Wilkens-Reed

Molly Wilkens-Reed is Collegiate Assistant Professor of Viola and director of the Virginia Tech String Project, a robust community string education and teacher training program at Virginia Tech. As faculty at Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, she spends her summers in beautiful northern Michigan teaching violin and viola. Past teaching engagements have included violin and viola faculty positions at the Peabody Preparatory, the Baltimore School for the Arts, the Bryn Mawr Music School, PRIZM Music Camp and International Chamber Music Festival, and the Memphis Suzuki Summer Institute. Her string music education presentations, performances, articles, and lectures have been featured at the American Viola Society Festival, the Virginia, Texas, and Tennessee Music Educators Conferences, the American String Teachers Association National Conference, the American Suzuki and American Viola Society Journals, and various university campuses across the country. Recent premiers include To Saint Augustine, for soprano, mixed ensemble, and fixed media by Bobby Ge, Grief by Juhi Bansal, and Jennifer Bernard Merkowitz’s Emerson’s Hands for viola and piano.

Distinguished awards include the Outstanding String Project of the Year Award from the American String Teachers Association, the team Alumni Award for Outreach Excellence at Virginia Tech, the College Award for Outreach Excellence at Virginia Tech, the Favorite Faculty Award at Virginia Tech, the Memphis Woman Magazine’s Vision Award, and numerous grants for her string music education and pedagogy work. As an adjudicator for local and national string competitions, she encourages young learners with thoughtful feedback and practical advice. She is a member of the Epsilon Omicron Chapter of the Pi Kappa Lambda Society, the College Music Society, the National Association for Music Education, the American Suzuki Association, the American String Teachers Association, and the American Viola Society. She serves as a board member of the National String Project Consortium.

Wilkens-Reed’s students have gone on to be award-winning music educators in middle and high school orchestra programs, successful private studio teachers, professional chamber music ensemble players, arts administrators, and college music scholarship winners across the USA. Wilkens-Reed earned Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Education and Viola Performance from the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis and a Master of Music degree in Viola Performance with a concentration in String Pedagogy at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. Her primary teachers include Lenny Schranze, Victoria Chiang, and Rebecca Henry. She is trained in the Suzuki Violin Method through Book 8, studying with teacher trainers Marilyn O’Boyle, Kirsten Marshall, and Judy Bossuat-Gallic. Molly performs with a 2009 Stanley Kiernoziak viola and bow by David Samuels. She resides in Blacksburg, VA with her husband and their three young sons.​​

Molly Wilkens-Reed, Collegiate Assistant Professor of Viola / Director of the VT String Project