Dr. Elizabeth Kuefler Wallace, violist and violinist, is an active performer and teacher in Wichita, Kansas. She teaches private violin and viola students in her home studio and is an instructor of violin at Wichita State University.
Elizabeth is a member of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and the Switchgrass String Quartet. Previously, she served as adjunct professor of viola and violin at Utah Valley University, Dickinson College, and the Gifted Music School in Salt Lake City. She has held additional teaching positions at Eastern Mennonite University and Stony Brook University. From 2010-2016, she was a member of the Utah Chamber Orchestra at Ballet West and performed frequently with the Utah Symphony. Prior to that, she was Artistic Director for State Street Academy of Music in Harrisburg, PA and served as Assistant Principal Viola of the Reading Symphony and Principal Viola of the Williamsport Symphony.
Dr. Wallace made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Pangea String Quartet in 2007. Other performances include the Bang On a Can Marathon in NYC, and collaborations with artists such as Eugene Drucker, Phillip Setzer, Steven Taylor, and William Purvis on the Staller Center Recital Series. Winner of the 2008 concerto competition at Stony Brook University, she performed the Penderecki Viola Concerto with Guillermo Figueroa conducting.
She held fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Taos School of Music, and Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, where she performed under the world’s foremost conductors including James Levine, Bernard Haitink, Christoph Eschenbach, and Herbert Blomstedt. She also studied chamber music with members of the Emerson, Kronos, Borromeo, Brentano, and Juilliard String Quartets.
Elizabeth is a dedicated teacher to students of all ages, and has received Suzuki Certification through Book 6. Her students have been accepted to many prestigious conservatories and universities including Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard School, Indiana University, Cleveland Institute of Music, Boston Conservatory, Aspen Music Festival, Rice University, the University of Maryland, Arizona State University, and others.
She earned her Doctorate in Viola Performance from Stony Brook University, where she served as teaching assistant for Katherine Murdock. She received a Bachelors degree in violin performance from the University of Kansas with Ben Sayevich, and also studied violin with Lorand Fenyves at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. In 1996 she won the Kansas State Fiddle Championship, and she had the pleasure of playing on stage with the Chieftains.
Outside of teaching and performing, Elizabeth dedicates her life to family, which also includes a lot of music! Her husband, Jeb Wallace, is Professor of Horn at Wichita State University and Principal Horn with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. Together they have three wonderful daughters, the oldest an accomplished young cellist and the second a budding violinist. The youngest is still contemplating her options : )
