Kim Teachout
Kim grew up in Traverse City and began her musical studies at a very young age, first on piano and eventually on violin and viola. The love of music as a child led her to pursue music in college where she received degrees in viola performance.
Kim is currently the associate principal viola with the Traverse Symphony Orchestra, section viola with the Baroque on Beaver Festival Orchestra, and is the Principal Viola of the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra.
As a registered Suzuki teacher, Kim has spent much of the last two decades teaching the Suzuki Method throughout the US and Italy. She is currently a Piano Instructor at Northwestern Michigan College, a Suzuki violin and piano instructor through Traverse Symphony’s Suzuki program, and maintains a very active private studio of violin, viola and piano students. Kim enjoys playing in the viola quartet Los Altos, and fiddling, singing, and playing stand up cello in the honky-tonk country band, Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory. When you can't find her making music, she'll either be in the yoga studio or on her paddleboard.
Matthew Valdiviez
After a few years in school at University of New Mexico and Yale University, Matthew spent many years teaching English to college and high school students. After being introduced to guitar in a high school guitar class in Albuquerque, NM, and having spent many hours cultivating his skills in the practice room, he has performed with numerous bands in many areas of the country. In 2014, he gave up his teaching career to move to Kim's hometown of Traverse City. Spending much of his time attending to the needs of the home and family, he is the accountant for Kim's thriving private teaching studio, the family chef, the handyman, the grocery shopper, and the everything else man. He has a wide array of musical favorites and inspirations including doom metal, classical, classic 60's surf music, 90's hip hop, folk, and of course, honky-tonk country. His interests include playing guitar, lap steel, bass, writing and learning new songs, philosophy, and writing.
In 2009, Kim was in music school in Phoenix, AZ working on a Doctorate in classical viola performance. Over the New Year, she went to Albuquerque to visit friends and met Matthew at a party. He was an English Professor who dabbled in playing bass and guitar. It was "love at first conversation" however, the music making didn't start until much later when Kim bought a fiddle book and started working on building a repertoire that they could play together. Matthew and Kim played their first gigs together in Albuquerque, NM, mostly at coffee shops in the area. In 2014, they moved back to Kim's hometown of Traverse City where they re-hashed the fiddle tunes from their past and started playing in the Traverse City area. In the past few years, they've taken a break from performing to cultivate their sound, repertoire, and harmonies. They are really excited to share their hard work with you!