Our Staff

Matthew Barwegen teaches violin and viola. He is a professional violist with more than a decade of experience teaching and performing. Matthew has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Wheaton College, a Professional Studies degree from the San Francisco Conservatory, a Master of Music in Viola Performance from Illinois State University and a Performer’s […]

Edward Eubank teaches violin and viola. He is a professional violinist with more than three decades of experience in teaching, directing, administrating and performing. Ed has a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance, under Mr. Ki Joo Lee, at the American Conservatory of Music. He also has a Master of Arts Educational Administration degree […]

David Heise teaches violin and viola. He is a professional violist with more than two decades of teaching and performing experience. David believes in a whole-person approach to learning music. He incorporates posture training, ear training, scales, technical exercises, sight reading, music theory, and relaxation techniques in his lessons. David’s favorite aspect of teaching is […]

Carl Johnston teaches violin and viola. He has more than four decades of experience teaching and performing. Carl has both a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music from the Chicago Musical College at Roosevelt University. Carl has taught music at numerous Chicagoland schools including the University of Chicago Laboratory School. Carl has been […]

Ana Simonovska-Mroz teaches violin and viola. She is a professional violist with more than a decade of experience in teaching, and performing. Ana has a Bachelor of Music Degree in Viola Performance from the State Music Academy “Pancho Vladigerov” in Sophia, Bulgaria, where she studied with Prof. Ognyan Stanchev. She also has a Certificate of […]

Elena Kolganova teaches voice. She is a professional vocalist with more than two decades of experience teaching and performing. Elena studied vocal performance at Tashkent College of Music and the Tashkent Conservatory. She completed her training as a member of two prestigious operatic artist development programs; the Houston Grand Opera Studio, and the Lyric Opera […]

Steve Lawler graduated from Valparaiso University. He has been playing guitar on and off for about forty years. Steve has been teaching guitar at The Music Connection since it was founded over fifteen years ago. Steve is influenced by Rock & Roll, Blues, Jazz and Classical music and loves to play a lot of different […]

Bob Stern teaches guitar and electric bass. He is a professional musician and composer with more than three decades of experience teaching and performing. Bob has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northeastern Illinois University. Bob performs rock, blues, folk and country music extensively throughout the Chicagoland area. His compositions include multiple scores for ballet […]