Yvonne DeRoller, Viola
Yvonne received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Applied Music/Music Education from SUNY Fredonia, New York and her Master of Music Degree in Viola Performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston. Her teachers included Francis Tursi at the Eastman School of Music, Charles Joseph, and Burton Fine. She also took a double major in English during her undergraduate years.
Yvonne has been a member of Symphony Nova Scotia, and prior to that, the Atlantic Symphony, for 31 seasons. She founded and directed the Halifax Talent Education Suzuki School for 13 years, introducing the Suzuki Method to Halifax. She has taught violin and viola privately for 33 years. Yvonne is an active advocate of music education, having taught in the school system, as string syllabus coordinator for the Nova Scotia Kiwanis Festival for many years, as Symphony Nova Scotia Board rep to the education committee, as a music festival adjudicator, coach at the String Music Atlantic's summer camps, coach for the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra, and as President of the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra for two years. She was a fellow at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood Music Center and a participant in the Nantucket Island Chamber Music Festival before coming to Canada in September 1978 to join the Atlantic Symphony under Victor Yampolsky.
Yvonne also played in the Charlottetown festival orchestra for five summers. She is a former member of the Rhapsody ensemble, the Octet, and Tempest Baroque Ensemble. Currently, she is serving her sixth year as the Managing Director of the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra.
Yvonne resides in Lunenburg County in an 1880's era home on the ocean, and is the proud mother of Lauren, an aspiring violinist.