JoAnna Ferrari-Beernaert began teaching in Simsbury in 2004. She has taught at almost every school, Simsbury High School rfrom 2006-2009 and Henry James Memorial Middle School from 2009-2017. Currently she is teaching beginning strings and orchestra at Tootin’ Hills and Latimer Lane Elementary School. She loves teaching beginning students and finds great joy in creating life-long musicians.

JoAnna Ferrari- Beernaert earned her Bachelor's of Music in music education at the Hartt School, University of Hartford, Connecticut. During this time she performed violin with various chamber ensembles and the Hartt Symphony Orchestra. JoAnna was a violin pupil of Mickey Reisman for five years and Nicholas Mann for two years. She has performed in master classes with Pamela Frank and Katie Lansdale, Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer of the Emerson String Quartet. In 2006, JoAnna completed her Master's Degree in Violin Performance with an emphasis in Suzuki pedagogy. She continued her studies with Mickey Reisman and began violin pedagogy with Professor Linda Fiore.

During her master's degree, she continued to perform with the Hartt Symphony Orchestra, gave recitals, and studied sonatas with pianist, Ignacio Prego. She has attended the Niagara International Chamber Music Festival led by Atis Bankas as well International Academy of Music in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, Italy. During these festivals she has studied with Almita Vamos, Julia Bushkova, Zvei Zeitlin, and Efrem Briskin.

Mrs. Ferrari has been teaching for over fifteen years and there is nothing she enjoys more than setting up her beginning students to become lifelong learners and motivated musicians!