meet the teacher

Sue Orrell is a DeLand native and graduate of the School of Music at Stetson University. She also holds a Master of Music degree from Winthrop University and a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Houston. Additionally, Sue is fully certified in Orff-Schulwerk, an approach to teaching music that stresses movement and creativity and features the use of classroom instruments such as xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiels.

After leaving DeLand in 1968 to pursue graduate work and to begin her teaching career, Sue taught music in elementary schools in SC, MO, and TX. She also taught Music Education and Piano at Simpson College in IA and Music Education and Voice at Frostburg State University in MD. Following retirement from the Katy Independent School District in Katy, TX in 2009, Sue built her piano studio from one to over 30 students. During the time since retirement, she also published her first book, Cries of the Panther on Mockingbird Hill, a personal memoir. Her second book, Welcome Home Me, launched in 2023. In it, she chronicles the long journey she has been on since leaving DeLand and the uncanny coincidences that helped lead her home. Opening her studio in DeLand is the final step in reclaiming her roots right here in West Volusia County.