Beth Kiser (she/her/hers) is a music therapist, educator, and school psychologist as well as a proud Suzuki mom. Currently Beth is excited to be working as a Teaching Artist through the Overture Center leading “Music and Mindfulness Imagination Vacations” and teaching cello to students ages 4-74! Leading the Madison Cello Ensemble, offering music therapy and  performing with Wellspring Sound Arts Collective are three  of her most joy filled jobs. The opportunity to bring new cello students, who may may not have access to music lessons into the Madison Cello Ensemble is beyond fulfilling!

Some of Beth’s earliest memories are playing cello in nursing homes with her grandmother accompanying, and listening to her sister’s violin lessons at the American Suzuki Institute. While still in high school, Beth was teaching assistant for the first Suzuki cello groups held there in the 1970’s.

Beth studied cello and pedagogy with Kathleen Franceski, Wolfgang Laufer and Gerald Fishbach as an undergraduate and pursued her masters in string pedagogy at UW-Madison. Beth is passionate about cello ensembles and using music as a tool for wellness. Students from her studio have been recognized for their dedication to community service through music, zest-filled performances and fierce passionate technical playing. Beth’s cello students continue to inspire her and are now teaching and performing throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, but many return home annually for the 30 year tradition of a Solstice Cello Celebration!  Beth delights in the accomplishments of her students as empathic creative musicians and community members who use music to bring joy and wellness into their lives and to others.  Beth is most proud of the community built within the MCE studios, and to be collaborating with her cellist daughter Margaret.

Zou Zou Robidoux is a Wisconsin-based cellist working across classical and contemporary genres. She recently completed a Master of Music at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, studying with Dr. James Waldo as a Paul Collins Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellow. Prior to her graduate studies, Zou Zou lived in Montreal from 2016-2024. During this time, she performed throughout Canada in band, musical theater, and orchestral settings, including performances at the Montreal Jazz Festival, National Arts Centre, Theatre Calgary, and Vancouver Folk Festival. As a studio musician in the Montreal scene, Zou Zou collaborated with members of Arcade Fire, The Weather Station, and U.S. Girls, and was featured as a cellist and string arranger on two of Basia Bulat’s studio albums, The Garden and Are You In Love?

An avid collaborator, Zou Zou has performed as a chamber musician with Midsummer’s Music, LunART, Bach Before Bedtime, Willy Street Chamber Players, among others. In 2022, Zou Zou founded ChamberFest at the Spring Green General Store (ChamberFest), a chamber music festival committed to bringing diverse and engaging programming to the Wisconsin River Valley Community. For ChamberFest, Zou Zou collaborated with actors from American Players Theatre for narrated children’s concerts. As an orchestral musician, Zou Zou has worked with the Reno Philharmonic, Pronto Musica, and Orchestre de la francophonie, with whom she toured South Korea.

In addition to her classical work, Zou Zou has played in over 30 musical theater productions across the U.S. and Canada. In 2022, Zou Zou made her professional acting debut at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts, originating the role of Music in the English adaptation of Keren Peles’ rock musical April Fools.

Zou Zou received her B.Mus. in Cello Performance from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she studied with Uri Vardi. Following her degree, Zou Zou served as the cellist of the Nightingale String Quartet at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), where she also performed the Elgar Cello Concerto as a soloist with the UNR Symphony Orchestra.

A passionate educator, Zou Zou has worked as a cello and ensemble instructor at the Mount-Royal Youth Orchestra (Orchestre des Jeunes de Mont-Royal), WYSO, Heid Music, and the University of Nevada, Reno. She is thrilled to return to MCE, where she was once a student, as an instructor!

Margaret Ruth Billingham, (she/they /them) artistic director of Madison Cello Ensemble, joined Suzuki Strings of Madison teaching cooperative in 2021. As a passionate chamber musician and coach, she is excited to see how string ensembles will blossom under the collaboration. Born and raised in Madison, she grew up in the Madison Suzuki tradition, listening to her older sister’s violin lessons with SSM founder Diana Popowycz, and taking violin lessons with SSM founder Maria-Rosa Germain. At the age of five, she began learning cello from her mother, Elizabeth Kiser. The mother/daughter duo created Madison Cello Ensemble when Margaret was eight years old, and upon her return to Madison after college they began to direct MCE together. Experiencing musical learning with an emphasis on community and family has greatly influenced how she approaches teaching through a social-emotional learning lens.

Margaret has a B.A. from Lewis and Clark College, where she studied music, theater, and developmental psychology. Her principal cello teachers include Nancy Ives, Lawrence Levitan, Benjamin Whitcomb, Maggie Townsend, and Flora VanWormer. She was trained to teach the Suzuki method with Joan Krzywicki. At L&C she also trained in Alexander Technique. She has been on the faculty as a teaching artist at Collegio Pedro Aquirre Cerda in Chile, Grace Fine Arts Camp in Oregon, and here in Madison at Camp Begin, Madison School Community Recreation, Bayview Community Center, and Fantastic Folk Fiddle. She also was invited to  joinethe teaching team of Music con Brio. Her training as a Certified Peer Specialist through UW Milwaukee’s School of Continuing Education also informs her teaching technique by incorporating mindfulness and emotional wellness into musical education.  Margaret’s students excel in the community and have received multiple awards, scholarships and recognition for excellence!

Aaron Fried (he/him/his) is a concert cellist, arranger, and music educator based in Madison, Wisconsin. He has appeared on music series throughout his community and beyond, including the Madison Jazz Festival, Violins of Hope, Samtalä: Musicians in Dialogue, Midsummer’s Music, Cello Springs, the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival, Colorado Mahlerfest, and Chamber Music Silicon Valley, as well as with ensembles such as Ensemble Aubergine, the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Madison Opera, the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra, the Rockford Symphony Orchestra, the Traverse City Philharmonic, and The Cleveland Opera.

His recent arrangements include a Klezmer Octet performed by Violins of Hope, jazz string duos premiered at a chocolate-shop concert in Alabama, an expanded Bach Double Violin Concerto for WYSO Music Makers, a reimagined Goldberg Variations for Samtalä, and a wide range of works for the Madison Cello Ensemble, spanning Tchaikovsky to the Rolling Stones to K-Pop Demon Hunters. Dedicated to pushing the boundaries of string instruments as a multi-style musician and improvisor, he has contributed to projects such as the Hanah Jon Taylor Artet, Mr. Chair, Nick Moran’s Una Historia de Afro Cuban Jazz, Five One Experimental Orchestra, and the UW Bridge Ensemble. As part of his DMA dissertation, he wrote a jazz supplement to the Suzuki Cello School and continues to expand this pedagogical approach.

Aaron currently serves on the faculty of WYSO, Eagle Strings, and the Madison Cello Ensemble. He previously studied at UW-Madison, The Boston Conservatory, and Kent State University, where he later served as adjunct faculty for three years.