Viola Day Guest Artist: Prof. Molly Wilkens-Reed

Violist Molly Wilkens-Reed is director of the Virginia Tech String Project and music elective instructor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. As faculty at Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, she spends her summers in beautiful northern Michigan striving to inspire love of instrumental music through an explorative learning design. Past teaching engagements include faculty positions at the Peabody Preparatory, Baltimore School for the Arts, the Bryn Mawr Music School, and the Memphis Suzuki Summer Institute. She has performed professionally with regional orchestras in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas.

Wilkens-Reed was awarded the Dean’s Incentive Grant from the Peabody Institute for her project to commission a new work for intermediate level string quartet, tackling an ever present need for pedagogically appropriate repertoire for young string players. She was also awarded the Israel Dorman Memorial Award in Strings from Peabody and a Peabody Institute Career Grant. Under her leadership, the CNAFME chapter of the University of Memphis won the 2015 TMEA Outstanding Chapter Award for the state of Tennessee. She was awarded the 2008 “Vision Award” by Memphis Women Magazine and named an Outstanding Young Woman of Memphis. Wilkens-Reed is a member of the Epsilon Omicron Chapter of the Pi Kappa Lambda Society, the American Viola Society’s Youth Advisory Council, and the Suzuki Association of the Americas. 

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. Wilkens-Reed is certified in the Suzuki Violin Method through book 5, studying with teacher trainers Marilyn O’Boyle and Judy Bossuat-Gallic.