Rachael Lonergan

From Suzuki Book 1 to the Peabody Institute: How One Van Nuys Cello Teacher Builds Careers — and Keeps Adults Playing Too

Rachael Lonergan has been teaching cello in the San Fernando Valley since 1989, which means some of her current students' parents weren't yet born when she took her first lesson pupils. Based in Van Nuys and also available for online instruction, she works with students ranging from age four through adult — a span that requires genuinely different methods, not just scaled-down versions of the same approach. She has started students in Suzuki Book 1 and taken them through major concerto repertoire including the Dvorak, Elgar, and Haydn D Major — a pedagogical arc that spans roughly a decade of serious study.

Her performance background is specific and extensive. For eight years she served as principal cellist of the West Valley Chamber Orchestra, where she was featured as a soloist on a substantial list of works: Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B-flat, Haydn's C Major Concerto, the Saint-Saëns Concerto No. 1, Vivaldi's Double Concerto in G minor, Boccherini's Concerto in B-flat, Fauré's Élégie, and Bruch's Kol Nidrei. That breadth of solo experience is not incidental to her teaching — students regularly win concerto competitions and perform solos with youth orchestras. She has also played on several motion picture soundtracks and appeared in the Air Supply music video 'Always.'

Her institutional involvement runs deep. She spent twelve years as a coach for the Suzuki Music Program of Los Angeles, served on faculty at the Southern California Suzuki Institute in 1996, and has taught chamber music classes at the National Cello Institute every year since 2003. She coordinated the American String Teachers Association Area I and II Competition from 1999 to 2006, and has directed Suzuki Cello Graduation for the Suzuki Music Association of California's Los Angeles branch since 1996. She spent ten years on the Los Angeles Cello Society Board of Directors. In 2006 she founded the San Fernando Valley Cello Ensemble — a performing group made up entirely of her own students — which plays regularly at retirement homes, libraries, and hospitals.

What students describe in their reviews is a teacher who adapts her methods to the individual rather than running everyone through the same curriculum. One parent noted that her teenage son, who had historically lost interest in extracurricular activities, now looks forward to his lessons and draws inspiration from Rachael's more advanced students in the ensemble. Another reviewer — an adult beginner from Sherman Oaks — described arriving never having held a cello and leaving with enough progress to keep playing independently. A student who commutes from Malibu specifically for lessons noted the trade-off is worth it. The geography alone — Calabasas, Topanga, Malibu, Sherman Oaks — suggests that students are making deliberate choices rather than defaulting to whoever is closest.

One former student's arc stands out as a data point worth noting: Lisa Kang studied with Rachael throughout high school in Los Angeles, then went on to earn a Bachelor of Music in cello performance from the Peabody Institute. Rachael's connection to the competitive and institutional landscape — ASTA, MTAC's Certificate of Merit, VOCE, SYMF, and others — means students who want structured benchmarks have a clear pathway. Ninety-five percent of her students are members of their school orchestra in addition to the San Fernando Valley Cello Ensemble, suggesting the studio functions less like a series of isolated lessons and more like an entry point into a broader musical life.

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