Christopher
Pettit

Educator, Cellist & Researcher

For his promotion of public education and his achievements in the field, Christopher Pettit was named the 2025 Bob Haisman Early Career Teacher of the Year by the Illinois Education Association — the largest professional and labor organization representing 135,000 educators in the state — approximately half of whom are early career. He is also the 2025–26 Youth Symphony of DuPage Featured Music Educator.

Christopher teaches orchestra in St. Charles CUSD 303. He also maintains an inviting and rigorous home studio,CelloPettit Studio. He is a doctoral candidate in Education at Northern Illinois University, where he intends to finish dissertating in the 2026-2027 year.

Passionate about the Suzuki Method, Christopher is certified in all levels of Suzuki Cello. A graduate of the Wheaton College Community School of the Arts Suzuki youth program, he returned as faculty after completing his undergraduate degrees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and was also faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago. His students have won a variety of local and state contests.

Christopher studied cello under the exceptional tutelage of Carol Ourada, Dr. Tanya Carey, and Dmitry Kouzov, and performs on a2013 Wilke Cello. In addition to his training as a soloist and orchestral musician, he has performed in churches, weddings, casinos, and musical pit orchestras across the Midwest.