April began piano lessons at the age of four, and participated in sonatina contests, ensemble contests, and many other annual recitals and tests provided by the regional chapter of the Oregon Music Teachers’ Association. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education at Seattle Pacific University, magna cum laude, during which time she studied pipe organ and also pursued choral music. April earned her Master’s degree in Music Education from Arizona State University, with an emphasis in choral music.

April has been a member of numerous collegiate and community choirs, including the Seattle Pacific University Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, the Arizona State University Early Music Chamber Choir, the San Jose Choral Project, and Master Chorus Eastside.

April taught elementary and middle-school classroom music and choir for eleven years in Washington, Arizona, and California, and has taught piano and voice privately for four years. She has also taught English as a Second Language to adults and is TEFL-certified (Teaching English as a Foreign Language).

As a result of this diverse teaching experience, April is comfortable working with students of all ages and abilities, including those with physical challenges and/or special learning needs. April incorporates elements of Orff and Kodaly methodologies (such as rhythm syllables and solfege singing and hand-signs) into her teaching so that students can have multiple strategies for understanding and reading music. To help students develop good technique, she uses targeted strategies for improving students’ awareness of how they play the piano or sing, so that they can self-correct and establish healthy physical habits. She recognizes that there are a variety of learning styles and preferences and adapts her teaching methods as much as possible to accommodate the needs of each student, so that all can experience success with music and enjoy it as a form of personal expression and enrichment.      

Carolina borns in Barranquilla, Colombia. She completed her undergraduate studies at Catholic University in Washington DC and pursued her Master’s in Vocal Performance at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX. She is currently a DMA candidate in Vocal Performance at the University of Washington. Carolina has been teaching piano and voice at a very high level since 2002, providing private lessons at the collegiate level and classroom instruction at the elementary school level. She has extensive operatic, theatrical, and solo experience performing in numerous operas and musicals. Opera roles include Dialogues of the Carmelites, L’Elisir d’amore, Die Zauberflöte, Don Pasquale, Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Fledermaus, Cosí fan tutte, Der Freischütz, and the Musicals She Loves Me, Fiorello! and West Side Story performed in Washington DC, New York and Texas. Additionally, she performed for the Houston Grand Opera for several seasons. Carolina is multilingual speaking fluently in Italian, Spanish and English. Carolina has a passion for teaching and loves to work with students of all ages. 

Dr. Joh completed her Doctoral of Musical Arts degree in 2013 at the University of Washington, under the direction of Craig Sheppard, where she received a full scholarship as a graduate assistant in piano accompanying. As a recipient of William Harrison Barnes Scholarship, she studied with Alan Chow at the Northwestern University, where she earned her M.M in Piano Performance. She received her B.M in Piano Performance from Indiana University in Bloomington, where she studied under Jean-Louis Haguenauer and received the Roe Van Buskirk Memorial Scholarship and Music Dean’s Award.  She graduated from the prestigious Interlochen Arts of Academy and Camp.

Dr. Joh is honored to have performed nationally and internationally at many different festivals, camps, and performance halls including Busan Cultural Center. In 2007, she was a featured soloist with Oliver Diaz at Gironde Camber Orchestra in Spain. She is also an active chamber musician, performing in numerous recitals including Lutkin Hall in Illinois.

Dr. Joh has many years of teaching experience including students of all ages and levels from a diverse range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Her teaching experience includes an appointment as an adjunct professor at Dong-a University where she taught music seminars to graduate students and at Busan National University of Education where she taught piano lessons to undergraduate students, including classical and popular repertoire. During a course of study, Dr. Joh covers all areas of musicianship: theory, technique, harmony, ear-training, sight-reading, performance, and other creative works like improvising as she strongly believes that the most important part of teaching music is providing an enriched environment. Dr. Joh truly feel that a well-rounded musical education helps students define for themselves what music means to them. Dr. Joh understands that everyone is different and learns differently; therefore, she approaches students as individuals and attempt to challenge each according to their own unique potential.

Lillian began playing piano at age of six and studied in a music school from 7th to 12th grade. Afterwards, Lillian was accepted into the National Taiwan University of Performing Arts in Taipei where she hold B.A. degrees in Piano Performance and Music Education. During her study at the university, she started playing piano professionally for school concerts, ensembles, special events and composing music for business functions. 

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After completing her college, Ms. Lillian was a middle school music teacher for three years as well as a director of Ya-Yun Institute of Music in Taipei, Taiwan. In 2005, Ms. Lillian received a M.M. Degree in Composition from Central Washington University.  In order to further her development in piano techniques, Lillian studied classical piano with Dr. John Pickett and Mrs. Barbara Pickett, they inspired Lillian to explore the artistic essence of each music work. 

With her 20 years experience of music teaching, Ms. Lillian has developed a strong interest and skill in developing her own methods for teaching piano, music theory for children and young adults. She has been helping her students to succeed in passing music examinations and even help students get into music schools. Over the past few years her students has won a number of notable awards in piano performance competitions. 

Miaojun, as a native of China, started to play piano at age of 8. She studied piano with the professor Yuqing Zhang, Beihua Jaqueline Tang and Keng Zhou from Shanghai Conservatory of Music during high school. Miaojun Xu earned her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of South Carolina with Dr. Marina Lomazov where she graduated magma cum laude. Also, she earned her Master of Music degree at the Boston Conservatory of Music at Berklee with Professor Janice Weber. Miaojun Xu is currently pursuing Doctoral of Musical Art in the University of Washington with accompanying assistantship under the baton of Professor Dr. Craig Sheppard.

Through her hard work and sincere passion of music, Miaojun Xu had honorably received prizes from all over the world.   At age of 17, Miaojun Xu won her first international prize in “17th Young Musician International Competition “Citta di Barletta” where she got the first prize. In 2012 and 2013, Miaojun Xu attended the Burgos International Music Festival and won the third prize of the competition section with all instruments. She also won the first prize of the Impressionistic section of the "Atlanta Teacher Music Association" competition. Also, in 2013, Miaojun Xu was invited to the “Music Fest Perugia” and made her solo concerto debut with Perugia Festival Orchestra under the baton of Uri Segal.

With the same amount of passion for solo performance, Miaojun Xu devoted herself to a career of teaching and collaborative working as well. She had served as an instructor in the pre-college musical community in the University of South Carolina. As a piano teacher, Miaojun Xu loves to work music with students, and she believes that good habits and skills should be established since the very beginning. The goal of playing piano is to hear the beauty of music and to share the beauty to others. 

Dr Natalia is a Native of Russia, she graduated from renowned Russian music schools. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Musicology for piano performances in Gnessins' Russian Acdemy. After that, she decided to pursuit the Doctoral degree to research on the America Music in the University of Colorado. 

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Natalia started teaching piano and music theory from the age of 19 and since then it became her passion, along with the work as a piano accompanist for vocalists, choirs, instrumentalists. A few years ago fulfilling her childhood dream she started pipe organ training and earned the Colleague Certificate of American Guild of Organists.

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Natalia combines Russian and American teaching methods and teaches equally in both languages. The last 9 years she lived in Texas and help many of her students attain full potential and gained different types of music awards in piano performance. 

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While building sturdy academic foundation and solid professional skills, she finds it very important to nurture creativity and appreciation of music in her students, to make learning full of fun, personal discoveries and “wow” moments. She strongly believes that every classical piano piece is a whole world, a whole captivating story, an intricate puzzle or a fanciful game.

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Natalia approaches teaching in a holistic way and sees her mission in understanding unique qualities of each student and helping them explore themselves through music and piano playing, building personality, developing confidence and perseverance in any professional path they choose in their lives.

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Natalia has two sons, enjoys teaching them piano and helping to succeed in their classical guitar studies and learns to play guitar herself. In free time she enjoys sports, learning foreign languages, reading, painting and singing in choir.

Peng Mi started her studies in piano at the age of four with teachers from Shanghai Conservatory. In 2011, she moved to the United States to continue her studies under master pianist Sergey Schepkin. Peng Mi earned her degrees in Bachelor of Fine Arts in Piano Performance with University Honors, and Master of Piano Performance as a recipient of Anna Greenburg Memorial Scholarship from Carnegie Mellon University.  Peng Mi has performed internationally through recitals, music festivals, and competitions. She has found success not only in her solo career, but in accompaniment, chamber music, and orchestra as well. Peng Mi has performed in master classes with Byron Janis, Kyoko Hashimoto, and Matthew Bengston. Besides her performance and teaching career, she is also a front cover journalist for the Music Lover magazine from the Shanghai Conservatory publisher, and well known for her works in academia through Music Education. Utilizing her extensive knowledge in psychology and education, in her ten years of teaching, Ms. Zhang has brought success to her many students