Teacher Profile: Natalie Bartels

About Natalie Bartels

Natalie Bartels is a musician and a published poet based in Seattle, WA. Natalie began piano lessons as a child and loves to bring her passion for music to students through teaching lessons. Her childhood teacher had a tremendous impact on her development as a musician and as a person, and she still sees her every year at Christmas.

Natalie received a BA in Sacred Music and a BA in English from Concordia University Irvine in 2017. At Concordia she studied piano with Dr. Hyunjoo Choi, and organ and harpsichord with Dr. Tom Mueller. Both teachers also had a wonderful impact on Natalie. In 2015, Natalie had the opportunity to study abroad in Cambridge, UK, where she took organ lessons from Dr. Anne Page who taught her that you never have to be perfectly knowledgeable about a subject you love, you just have to vow to always continue learning and improving at that subject. Natalie also played auxiliary percussion in the Concordia Wind Orchestra throughout her undergraduate, and harpsichord in the Sinfonietta. In May 2017 she went with the Sinfonietta and played timpani on a performing tour of Germany to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

In 2019, Natalie received her Masters of Music in organ performance from the University of Washington. While Natalie was at the UW, she studied organ and harpsichord with Dr. Carol Terry and played harpsichord in the UW's Baroque Ensemble. She is now working as the Director of Music at First Covenant Church Seattle, where she plays organ and piano for the weekly services and directs the choir. During the 2019-2020 school year, Natalie worked as a band and choir teacher for grades 5-12 at a private school in the area.

Outside of teaching and performing music, Natalie also has a great interest in all things British. She plays a little bit of Scottish harp and plays the tin whistle quite badly. She is a devoted disciple of Oscar Wilde and has made a practice of quoting him to people at least once a day. Natalie is also an amateur gardener with big aspirations to have a beautiful garden and orchard some day to rival her father's.

Natalie's teaching philosophy is based on all the enriching and positive experiences she had with her private teachers. She believes that the most important part in teaching music is establishing a meaningful relationship between students and families and teachers. Natalie fosters a love of music in her students through developing a rich intellectual understanding of the music and through teaching the students to express their own unique interpretations through performance.