Molly Wilkens-Reed

About Molly

Molly Wilkens-Reed is Collegiate Assistant Professor of Viola and director of the Virginia Tech String Project, a robust community string education and teacher training program at Virginia Tech. As faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp, she spends her summers in beautiful northern Michigan teaching violin and viola. Past teaching engagements have included violin and viola faculty positions at the Peabody Preparatory, the Baltimore School for the Arts, the Bryn Mawr Music School, PRIZM Music Camp and International Chamber Music Festival, and the Memphis Suzuki Summer Institute. Her string music education presentations and lectures have been featured at the American Viola Society Festival, the Virginia and Tennessee Music Educators Conferences, and the American String Teachers Association Conference.

Distinguished awards include the Outstanding String Project of the Year Award from the American String Teachers Association, the team Alumni Award for Outreach Excellence at Virginia Tech, the College Award for Outreach Excellence at Virginia Tech, the Favorite Faculty Award at Virginia Tech, the Memphis Woman Magazine’s Vision Award, and numerous grants for her string music education and pedagogy work. 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 two Peabody Institute Career Grants. Under her leadership, the CNAFME chapter of the University of Memphis won the TMEA Outstanding Chapter Award for the state of Tennessee. She is a member of the Epsilon Omicron Chapter of the Pi Kappa Lambda Society, the Suzuki Association of the Americas, the National Association for Music Education, the American String Teachers Association, and the American Viola Society. She serves as a board member of the National String Project Consortium and the American Viola Society and is on the American String Teachers Association Collegiate Committee.

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. She is trained in the Suzuki Violin Method through Book 8, studying with teacher trainers Marilyn O’Boyle, Kirsten Marshall, and Judy Bossuat-Gallic. Wilkens-Reed performs with a 2009 Stanley Kiernoziak viola and bow by David Samuels. She resides in Blacksburg, Virginia with her husband and their two young sons.