Instructors
Learn and Jam With Our Experienced Music Teachers
Aaron
November 17, 2020
Aaron started playing music 14 years ago when he began studying the clarinet. Over the years, he added two more instruments to his repertoire, the tenor saxophone, and the flute. Aaron expanded his studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia where he explored many styles of music, including big band, classical, jazz, and fusion. Since his return to Rochester, he has been working as lead woodwind player for the wedding and event band Nik and the Nice Guys, and other local bands. Aaron has played the Reed 1 book for several professional musical theater productions. He has performed at Jazz Fest, East view mall, Oak Hill Country Club, Photo City Music Hall, Flour City Station, Genesee Valley Country Club, and many other venues outside of the Greater Rochester Area.
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Andre
November 17, 2020
Andre is a classical guitarist from Brazil, studying at Eastman under the direction of Nicholas Goluses, he was self-taught until he came to the U.S. at 16. He studied at Jacobs School of Music for 2 years and finished high school in Indiana before coming to Rochester to study at Eastman. He is well versed in Brazilian and classical guitar and has a deep understanding of aural skills, music theory, and history.
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Esther
November 17, 2020
Pianist Esther began her music studies at age three and performed in public two years later. She attended Yewon Art School and Seoul Arts High School in South Korea, studying with Jinwoo Chung and Hee-sung Joo. Performing in major concert venues and music festivals throughout the country, she was a top prize-winner in numerous competitions, including the Junior Chopin Competition, the Busan Music Festival Competition, and the EumYoun Competition, and was the youngest pianist to perform in the Fourth Chopin International Competition in Moscow. During her first year in the U.S., she won the Boston Symphony Youth Concerts Orchestra Concerto Competition. As a result, she appeared as a featured soloist at Boston Symphony Hall. She also appeared in National Public Radio’s program From the Top and was awarded the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award. Esther won the Harvard Musical Association Competition in 2010.
Esther partook in the Young Artists Piano Virtuoso Showcase at Rockport Chamber Music Festival and in the International Mendelssohn Academy in Leipzig (Germany) as a student representative of the New England Conservatory. She also participated in the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s premiere of composer Un Suk Chin’s work, and in the avant-garde ensemble directed by Stephen Drury, [nec] shivaree. In 2017, she won the Eastman School of Music Piano Department’s concerto competition and played Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Eastman Philharmonia.
Esther was a recipient of the Arnold C. Taylor Award at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, given to a student with the highest distinction in art and academics. She studied at the New England Conservatory with full scholarship under the guidance of Wha Kyung Byun, Russell Sherman, and Meng-Chieh Liu. In her first year of the doctorate program at the Eastman School of Music, Esther studied with Rebecca Penneys. Since her retirement, she is currently continuing her studies under the tutelage of Douglas Humpherys.
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Tyler
November 17, 2020
23-year-old Tyler is an emerging young pianist, performer, and avid photographer, hailed by the press as “one of those young epitomes of brilliance and early success” (San Francisco Classical Voice). He received a BM in piano performance and musical arts from the Eastman School of Music in 2019 and is currently pursuing a MM in piano performance and literature there.
In 2014, Tyler won the 28th Annual Celia Mendez Young Pianist’s Beethoven Competition, the Pacific Musical Society Piano Competition and was inducted into the MTAC Young Artist Guild. He also had the opportunity to raise $2500 in relief funds for victims of Typhoon Haiyan through a solo benefit recital, which was telecast and achieved critical acclaim. Subsequently, he was a guest artist at the Bear Valley Music Festival, a featured artist in the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival’s “Emerging Artists” concert series, and has continued to perform solo recitals throughout California every year since.
In his early years, Tyler won first place awards from Santa Cruz MTAC, the US Open Music Competition, and the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival Youth Chamber Music Competitions. He first appeared at the Carmel Bach Festival at the age of 10, and as a result of winning the concerto competition at the Santa Cruz Youth Symphony, Tyler made his concerto debut with them at the age of 14.
Beyond his studies at Eastman, Tyler has received scholarships to attend the Meadowmount School of Music, the Colburn Academy Piano Festival, California Summer Music, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. He was also the recipient from 2017-2018 of a Nadenstedt YAG College Music Study Scholarship. Before working under the tutelage of Natalya Antonova and Douglas Humpherys at the Eastman School of Music, Tyler previously studied piano with Hans Boepple and piano and organ with Vlada Volkova Moran. He served as the organist of Messiah Lutheran Church in Santa Cruz from 2013-2015 and at Penn Yan First Baptist Church from 2018-2019.
When Tyler isn’t at the piano, he can be found capturing the subtleties of his surroundings with his camera. Now primarily engaged in a formalistic documentation of man-altered landscapes and urban spaces, the breadth of his work also includes commercial product photography, natural landscapes, cityscapes, portraiture, and wedding photography. In addition to photographing faculty and students at the Eastman School of Music, his photography has also led to marketing contracts with Daniel Wellington, Triwa, and Esperos.
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Katie
November 17, 2020
Katie has been playing percussion since the sixth grade and has been a member of countless different musical organizations throughout her life. From DCA to community bands, orchestra, and other groups Katie has had a lot of success with her music including many awards, scholarships, and state championships. When her high-school days were over, she had the opportunity to start teaching for the marching organizations of her alma mater and other ensembles around New York, Pennsylvania, and surrounding areas. She has found incredible joy from passing on the knowledge that she’s gained throughout the years to her students and is excited to continue to watch her students grow into talented musicians.
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Nathan
November 16, 2020
Nathan, a Rochester native, loves being able to share his skills to help his students achieve their musical goals. Nathan has 19 years of experience to include self-guided training, formal training, and performance. His unique skill set has developed from working with people both young and old with varying levels of abilities. Nathan focuses on each student's individual strengths while promoting a fun and engaging atmosphere. He believes that the student/teacher relationship should be collaborative. Most of all, lessons will be fun and through the training that he will provide, ensure that his students have a lifetime of enjoyment playing the beautiful instrument that is the guitar.
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Marilyn
April 11, 2019
Marilyn, a Caledonia native, is a graduate of Potsdam Crane School of Music in music education. She has been in the music circuit dating back to the ’70s, where she taught in both public and private schools. Still to this day, she is very much active in directing and playing for local area churches, weddings, and funerals. Some of Marilyn’s honors and accomplishments include Sigma Alpha Lota music fraternity, the Elite Collegiate Singers, which performed at the Lincoln Center in NYC, and Once Upon a Mattress. In high school, Marilyn was a 6A clarinetist, who attended NYSSMA and Allstate Band before focusing on voice, piano, and organ. While at the Crane School of Music, Marilyn was under the direction of Helen Hosmer, Nadia Boulanger, Robert Shaw, Stanley Chapple, and Lukas Foss. The most joyous accomplishment of all is the benchmark that Marilyn has paved forward for many of her students, some of whom have been involved in high school productions, while others have chosen to peruse a career in music.
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Koki
August 30, 2018
Determined to engage and inspire the audience, Koki made his debut at age 18 at Benaroya Hall, performing the rarely-heard Conus Violin Concerto in E minor with Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra under conductor, Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, as a winner of the concerto competition. Koki was the first violinist to play the Conus violin concerto at Benaroya Hall. In the same year, Koki won top awards at the Performing Arts Festival of Eastside (PAFE). Koki also has performed with the Bellevue Philharmonic at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington under conductor Fusao Kajima, performing Conus Violin Concerto in E minor as a winner of the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra Young Artist Debut Competition. Recently, Koki was awarded the first prize in American Protégé Piano and String Competition and made a solo debut in Weill Recital Hall in New York. Born in Japan and later moved to the United States, Koki started playing the violin at age 6. Then he studied with Mikhail Kopelman, Renée Jolles, Lynn Blakeslee, Ronald Patterson, Hsuan (Tony) Lee in the United States.
Since studying at the Eastman, Koki has been giving solo recitals annually at Eastman School of Music, as well as at George Eastman House’s Annual Concert Series. His repertoires include, but are not limited to H.I.F. Biber, Bach, Beethoven, Wieniawski, Brahms, Franck, Fauré, and Prokofiev.
Koki is also an active chamber music performer and enjoys performing with various musicians. While attending the University of Washington, Koki had a lot of chances to get exposed to chamber music performances. Motivated by the fact, he formed The Quantum String Quartet with his colleagues, and the group was awarded the first prize in the University of Washington Strings and Piano Chamber Ensemble Competition. The group has given numerous performances, including playing for the American String Project, an appearance at Café Racer’s Racer Sessions led by trumpeter Cuong Vu, a concert with San Francisco Symphony Principal Bass Scott Pingel in the Barry Lieberman and Friends series, and The Quantum String Trio chamber recital, and in the University of Washington Contemporary Group concert. In 20 In 2015, Koki had another chance to engage himself in a lot of chamber music performances. The annual chamber music concert at Eastman School of Music fueled him to form KEE Trio together with the colleagues from the Eastman and gained a spot in the chamber music recitals at Hatch Recital Hall at Eastman School of Music.
Besides the chamber music, Koki is also well trained in orchestra. Koki was a former concertmaster of the University Symphony at the University of Washington. Recently, Koki has been appointed as a Concertmaster of St. Andrew’s Chamber Ensemble where the orchestra plays a one-of-a-kind narrated storytelling concert. Not only in the concert setting, Koki often appears in masterclass, performing for various musicians.
He has played for Elisa Barston, violinist with the Seattle Symphony, Gil Shaham, Frank Almond, and Leon Fleisher in chamber music master class. In 2016, Koki participated in a videoconference master class presented by Sibelius Academy, taught by Kaija Saarikettu. Koki’s other passion has been teaching, and he has taught on many occasions. From local elementary school to middle school music class, as well as privately. After attending the Eastman School of Music, he participated in a string pedagogy class led by Dr. John Fetter and taught students at School No. 17. Currently, Koki holds a teaching position at American Music Centre in Rochester, NY, and Roberts Wesleyan Community Music School in Rochester, NY.
Koki has also been extensively involved in many volunteer services since high school and he was a volunteer member of “Nikkei Concerns,” an elder care home. He was scheduled to perform several music, ranging from traditional Japanese music to light classical music. During the performance, Koki always performed with his mother who played the piano. Koki was also a ballet dancer, having studied at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School and danced in many productions with ballet companies for 15 years.
Koki holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Eastman School of Music. Koki received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Washington and a Master of Music degree from Eastman School of Music.
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Matt
August 30, 2018
Matt has been an active performer within the Rochester music scene since the early ‘90s. With countless hours of studio and stage time, Matt brings a unique approach to instruction that centers around the individual artist and their goals. As music coordinator for American Music Centre’s Performing Arts School of Music, he brings over 27 years of teaching experience to the table with a focus on rock, metal, and blues guitar. Matt believes that every lesson should revolve around an efficient and engaging approach to learning theory and honing technique in order to assist musicians in reaching their goals.
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