About Us
Mission Statement
We at Tiny House of Strings seek to fill a need for access to strings education and instruments for our rural community, by offering lessons, maintenance and minor repairs and referrals when necessary. The goal is to build a thriving strings education resource in our community for interested participants of all ages and levels.
The Tiny House of Strings Story
In the summer of 2021, cellist and Oregon native Aniela Perry found herself wanting to relocate back to the Pacific Northwest. When an old friend said, "I have an old cottage on Whidbey Island you can rent for however long you need", not being very familiar with the island, she tentatively accepted and made the move up. Choosing to drive the long way down, so as to get a look at what the island had to offer, she took one glance at Deception Pass, the majestic open fields around Coupeville, snow-capped mountain and sea views and instantly knew this was where she wanted to be.
Ms. Perry wasted little time and went right to work on fixing up the 110+ year old building and connecting with the community, seeing the potential for a music school and shop she called Tiny House of Strings. She met and formed a chamber ensemble, Trio Rasa, with pianist Sheila Weidendorf and violinist Linda Vogt. Shortly after, she joined the Saratoga Orchestra and a few months after that became the bass player for local band, Buried Blonde. She also happily accepted the newly vacant position of Strings Teacher at the Whidbey Island Waldorf School. During this time, she also was able to explore her passion for musical instruments and woodworking with serious studies in bow and instrument repair and maintenance. She has discovered a great love for this work and makes room for it in her schedule daily, including weekly trips into Seattle to expand her knowledge and experience under the guidance of luthier Duane Lasley.
The Tiny House building was estimated to have been built around 1900, during the original settlement of Freeland. It has lived many lifetimes in the past 100+ years and has functioned as a private home, daycare, massage parlor, jewelry store, office and probably many other commercial operations. In her design and restoration of the building for Tiny House of Strings, Aniela adhered to a style that embraces natural woods, earthtones, handcrafted antiques and heirlooms to create a cozy feeling of home in rural Pacific Northwest.
Our In-House Instructors
Aniela Marie Perry
Aniela Perry recently relocated to Whidbey Island after living and working in Los Angeles for over 20 years. In her time there as a working musician she performed, collaborated and studied with a diverse group of composers and artists such as Rohan de Saram, Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick, John Zorn, Pauline Oliveros, Sofia Gubaidulina, David Rosenboom, James Tenney, Morton Subotnik, Van Dyke Parks, Michael Giacchino and Stefano Scodanibbio. She has performed on numerous feature film and television scores and is also a proficient electric bassist who studied with Wrecking Crew legend Carol Kaye. Other career highlights for Ms. Perry included performing Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire at the Banff Centre’s International Chamber Music Festival, Terry Jennings’ String Quartet at the 1st Annual Minimalist Jukebox at Disney Hall and shredding on electric cello at rock festivals around the world. In 2017, Aniela raised $25,000 for the Sweet Relief musician’s charity when she played for 27 straight hours, unofficially beating the current Guinness World Record in marathon cello playing. Ms. Perry is active in the local music scene with chamber music, symphonic work and as a rock bassist.
Linda Vogt
Linda Vogt started playing violin at age 8. Within several years, she began winning first place in the Eastside Music Festival competitions, was concertmaster of her school orchestras and was a member of the Seattle Youth Symphony. At age 15 she began studies with Emanuel Zetlin at the University of Washington. She broadened her musical experiences in early adulthood to include voice, jazz and improvisational violin. After playing professionally in the Seattle nightclub scene for a number of years, Linda returned to her roots and began playing professionally in various chamber and orchestral groups in Seattle. For the past 30 years, she has played with Auburn Symphony, NW Sinfionetta, has been concertmaster for Saratoga Orchestra, Philharmonia NW and Eastside Symphony. She was the featured soloist with Rainier Symphony and Eastside Symphony. She played in various chamber ensembles and currently is founder and violinist with RASA chamber ensemble (Sheila Weidendorf, Aniela Marie Perry, Gloria Ferry Brennan and Roxanna Patterson), and a member of Trio Improvisio (Sheila Weidendorf, Andre Feriante).
Linda has taught private lessons for over 12 years, including being a tudor with the Lake Washington School district string program for 4th though 6th grade.
Teresa Skuggeld
Teresa has been teaching since the age of 15. She started studying the violin as an 8 year old through the public school system, then went on to private lessons, eventually graduating with a music degree from Linfield College in 1989. For years, she was a member of the Seattle Youth Symphony and then Portland Youth Philharmonic. Now she is a freelance musician and a regular player with Everett Philharmonic, Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan and Pacific Northwest Opera.
Teresa teaches and performs both violin and viola. As well as being a private music teacher, she has been a homeschooling mother and has learned a lot about teaching to individual learning styles.