About Alicia

Alicia Randisi-Hooker has been a professional cellist and teacher for more than thirty years. She holds a Master of Music degree in cello performance from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, and a Bachelor of Music in performance from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her principal teachers were Mary Fraley, Lev Aronson, Deborah Reeder, Hans Jorgen-Jensen, Laszlo Varga, and Valentin Erbin, of the Alban Berg Quartet.

An enthusiastic champion of the Suzuki philosophy, Alicia was the first cello teacher in the Philadelphia area to complete all units of Suzuki training, and has extensive additional training through the Suzuki Association of the Americas. She served as the Artistic Director and head of the cello department at the Academy of Children’s Music in Fort Washington, PA for ten years, and was among the first graduates of the Music Together program of early childhood music education. While at the Academy, Alicia supervised the growth and development of the cello program from one student to more than forty.

Alicia has taught at SAA sanctioned Suzuki Institutes and workshops throughout the United States, and has enjoyed teaching a variety of students from ages three to eighty. Her students have been the recipients of many prizes, scholarships, and competitions, both nationally and internationally, including the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition. Her belief in the power of music to educate the whole child have led her to work not only with a high number of musically gifted children, but also those with special challenges.

Alicia received the Outstanding Teacher award from the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts in 2006 and was nominated again in 2008. The award recognizes teachers who successfully encourage student's pursuit of music as an aesthetic experience, artistic phenomenon and expressive agent.

As a professional cellist, Alicia has performed extensively in both the United States and Europe. She has been a member of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, the Oak Ridge Symphony, the Shreveport Symphony, the Philly Pops, and many other orchestras in the Philadelphia area. She is an avid chamber musician who performs regularly with Trillium Piano Trio and other ensembles in and around the Knoxville area. Fueled by her studies at the International Institute for Chamber music, her commitment to chamber music performance has remained the focus of her professional life.

The mother of two young adults, Alicia currently lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with her husband, a medical doctor.