Dana Anex is a violist, violinist, music educator, and chamber musician based in Livermore. Since fall 2024, she has served as assistant director of Sycamore Strings Academy, where she teaches Suzuki violin and conducts the Sycamore Chamber Orchestra alongside her mentor Göran Berg. In addition to Suzuki pedagogy, she teaches strings at the music composition and production-oriented Good Vibes Music Academy.

She studied viola performance with Helen Callus at Northwestern University. While at Northwestern, she practiced string pedagogy at the Northwestern Music Academy, guided by Stacia Spencer. She holds an M.A. in Humanities from The University of Chicago, where she studied music history and theory.

While in Chicago, she taught in after school music programs with The Chicago School of Musical Arts and Ravinia’s El Sistema-inspired “Reach, Teach, Play” program. In the Ravinia program, she collaborated with other teaching artists to instruct a quintet of driven, creative young string players and through that experience, developed a love for ensemble teaching.

Her teaching philosophy is influenced by Shinichi Suzuki, John Kendall, and Paul Rolland. She is currently studying Suzuki pedagogy intensively with Göran Berg.

She plays Baroque and Jazz music in a guitar/flute/viola trio and fiddles in a country band.