Ryellen Joaquim-Stadel
Viola and Violin Faculty
Dr. Ryellen Joaquim-Stadel is a violist and educator whose musical journey began at the age of eleven in Brazil. Her early experiences with the viola, the Suzuki Method, and the El Sistema philosophy shaped both her development as a musician and her approach to teaching. Having experienced firsthand the impact access to music education can have on a young person’s life, she believes high-quality music education should challenge students while creating a welcoming, supportive environment.
Dr. Stadel currently serves as the Director of Suzuki Programs at Laurel School of Music, formerly known as the St. Paul Conservatory and School of Music. She also maintains a violin and viola studio. Her teaching focuses on creating a positive, supportive environment where students can build strong musical foundations while developing confidence, independence, creativity, and a lasting enjoyment of music.
Her teaching experience spans Suzuki studios, community music programs, schools, conservatories, and youth orchestras. She has worked extensively with Suzuki Talent Education of the Lubbock Region (STELR) and previously served as String Faculty at the Dorothy Gerber String Program of the Great Lakes Center for the Arts and as a Teaching Assistant at Texas Tech University. Her teaching and coaching experience also includes Orquestrando a Vida, the Pittsburgh Youth Concert Orchestra, Escola de Música do Estado de São Paulo – Tom Jobim, and Projeto Guri.
At Orquestrando a Vida in Brazil, where her teaching career began, Dr. Stadel taught violin and viola and served as Conductor and Artistic Coordinator of the Youth Orchestra. She also helped develop and organize the Musical Pedagogy Seminar and created and coordinated a Viola Seminar for students and teachers. In Pittsburgh, she served as a Teaching Artist with the Hip Hop Orchestra Summer Program and as Co-Director and Conductor of the Pittsburgh Youth Concert Orchestra’s Summer Chamber Music program.
As a performer, Dr. Stadel has performed and toured internationally with ensembles in Brazil, the United States, Portugal, Bolivia, Poland, Ukraine, Germany, and Scotland. She has served as section, assistant principal, and principal viola with numerous orchestras, including the Orquestra Jovem do Estado de São Paulo, Orchestra of the Americas, Erie Philharmonic, Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, West Texas Symphony Orchestra, and Traverse City Philharmonic. Her performance experience has taken her to venues and festivals including the Edinburgh International Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and Carnegie Hall, and includes featured viola repertoire such as the solo in Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote.
She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Texas Tech University, with a focus on viola performance and pedagogy, as well as degrees from Duquesne University, Faculdade Mozarteum de São Paulo, and Faculdades Integradas de Ariquemes. She has also completed additional training in Psychopedagogy and Suzuki pedagogy.
Across her work as a performer, teacher, Suzuki educator, conductor, and community musician, Dr. Stadel remains deeply curious about how students learn and grow. She is especially interested in understanding each student as an individual and helping them develop not only as musicians, but as confident, creative, and independent people who love making music.