EdCircuit Staff 
2017 Grammy Music Educator Award Finalist Profile: Ulli Reiner
Ulli Reiner is an accomplished violinist and a highly respected music educator who has worked in the Poway Unified School District in San Diego since 1983. Last year was her second top-ten nomination for the GRAMMY Music Educator of the Year award.
Ulli recognizes that technology is changing all aspects of our lives, specifically in music, but feels time “plugged-in” can take away from valuable music instrument practicing. According to Ulli, technology although very useful and complementary, will never replace the knowledge gained from mastering an instrument.
There is a discipline to learning a physical instrument that should never be overlooked. When students make skillful gains on instruments, they get in touch with the art of the music and feel the depths of the human compassion. It’s a connection that is not easily replicated by technology.
Ulli believes working as part of musical ensembles can help students in many different fields of life. The act of learning music is similar to learning a foreign language and opens the mind to advanced language skills. Students entering the fields of medicine, biomedicine, and technology have proven more capable of mastering complex skills if they have taken music education.
Ulli has been around the same location long enough to witness former students starting careers and families. Interestingly, many of her Poway Unified School District former students are gravitating to music again. In response, Ulli has founded several community ensembles to allow the musical journey to continue past the classroom. It’s a wonderful way to support music in the community while bringing a sense of long-term life learning to all involved.
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About
Ulli Reiner, a Grammy Education Award semifinalist for 2016 and a top ten finalist for 2017, has been the Orchestra Director for the Poway Unified School District in San Diego, CA, since 1983. Ms. Reiner is an adjunct faculty member of Palomar College, Concertmaster of the Palomar College Symphony Orchestra, founder, Orchestra Manager and Concertmaster of the PUSD Adult School Poway Community Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the PUSD Adult School Poway Community Symphonette.
Ms. Reiner is also Artistic Director and co-founder of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of San Diego-Intermediate Symphony, Suzuki School and formerly conductor and co-founder of the Civic Youth Orchestra-Intermediate String Orchestra and Chamber String ensembles. She was the founder and Orchestra Director of the Poway High School Symphony and has taught orchestra at Mt. Carmel High School, Black Mountain Middle School, Mesa Verde Middle School, and Meadowbrook Middle School. She is currently the Orchestra Director at Bernardo Heights Middle School, Twin Peaks Middle School, and also is the instructor for the Music Appreciation offered to non-music students.
A graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, as a full scholarship recipient, she received a Bachelor of Music Education degree with emphasis in violin and viola performance and went on to graduate study at San Diego State University as first violinist with the Graduate String Quartet in residence, the University of Southern California, and the University of San Diego, having worked towards three masters degrees in music education, Suzuki violin and violin performance. Her violin and viola teachers have included Melvin Ritter-Concert Artist, Tiberius Klausner-former pupil of Ivan Galamian of Juilliard, Yukiko Kamei-Assistant to Jascha Heifetz at USC, Noumi Fisher-MGM recording artist, Milton Thomas-Professor of Viola at USC and her father, Rudolf Reiner. She is also a direct descendent of the great conductor, Fritz Reiner.
Her musical studies began at the age of 3 1/2 starting the cornet with her father as her teacher who attended the Bruckner Conservatory of Music in Linz, Austria. She played the trumpet in both her elementary and junior high school music programs. She also played trumpet with her family church brass ensemble throughout college. She began her violin studies at the age of 11 also with her father as her first teacher.
As a professional violinist, she has performed with the San Diego Symphony, San Diego Opera, Starlight Opera, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, St. Louis Municipal Opera, the St. Louis Philharmonic, and the Alexandria String Quartet. As a certified private instructor of Suzuki and traditional violin, her students have won numerous awards and scholarships leading to professional careers in music. She has performed under conductors Leonard Slatkin, Alexis Hauser, David Atherton, Peter Eros, and Walter Susskind. She has also enjoyed performing in the entertainment industry under such great artists as Andy Williams, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mathis, Angela Lansbury, Carol Channing, Yul Brynner, Lauren Bacall, Vincent Price and Zero Mostel. She has also worked in the recording industry having made commercials for both local and national companies.
- CBS – Quarterfinalists for the 2018 Music Educator Award announced
- Jacksonville Business Journal – Embracing technology, Jacksonville company looks to raise next generation of musicians
- Denver Business Journal – Composing a 2nd career: This 67-year-old Denver doctor just got a music degree
