J&F Musician Professionals
Vocal Teacher:
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Cecilia Cai: Operatic soprano, professional voice instructor. Ms. Cai has experience working with theaters,media companies, schools and non-profit organizations internationally. She performed principal roles in major productions including Nedda from “I Pagliacci”, MIcaela from “Carmen” and Violeta Valero from “La Traviata”. She has performed with Verismo Opera, Opera San Jose, Bay Shore Lyric Opera, First Street Opera, Jarvis Conservatory and The Voice of Harmony Artist. She has taught public high schools, private middle school, public elementary school, various music schools and heritage schools.
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Lina Linares: Lina is an experienced and dedicated music teacher with over 10 years of teaching experience. She specializes in teaching singing, choir, and violin, and is adept at creating engaging lesson plans that inspire students' love for music. Committed to individualized instruction, she flexibly adapts teaching methods to meet the unique needs and learning styles of each student. Possessing excellent communication and interpersonal skills, she collaborates effectively with students, parents, and colleagues. As a passionate and enthusiastic educator, she strives to cultivate creativity and musicality in every student. Lina completed a rigorous five-year program at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, earning a Bachelor's degree in Vocal Performance. Throughout her studies, she received comprehensive training in vocal techniques, music theory, music history, and stage performance. Actively participating in various recitals, operas, and choral ensembles, she gained valuable experience in both solo and ensemble singing.
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Lindsey Shay: is a University of Southern California Thornton School of Music alumnus from Carlsbad, California. Her musical foundation began with weekly piano lessons at age 5, progressing through Certificate of Merit, and later adding private vocal instruction at age 9. While earning her Bachelor's in Choral Music at USC, she sang Soprano I with the Thornton Chamber Singers under the direction of Jo-Michael Scheibe. Highlights during her time at USC include studying composition with Morten Lauridsen as well as singing Benjamin Briten's War Requiem at Walt Disney Concert Hall under the direction of James Conlon. Other highlights include singing under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, Grant Gershon, and Eric Whitacre. Since then, Lindsey has taught piano and voice to children and adults of all ages and backgrounds, aiming to blend her students' personal ambitions with a well-rounded understanding of musicality and technique, so as to encourage artistic appreciation and collaboration. When not teaching, Lindsey sings in small and large ensembles, performs as a soloist for events and churches around California, composes her own multi-genre music, and can often be found on her yoga mat.
Flute Teacher:
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Kay Wang: Miss. Wang is an active flutist and awarded flute instructor. She holds a Master of Music Degree in Flute Performance from Texas Christian University where she served as Graduate Assistant and taught flute throughout the studio. She also completed an advanced performance certificate from Carnegie Mellon University. While at CMU, she studied with the principal flutist of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Ms. Lorna McGhee and was a member of Atlantic Flute Quartet.Miss Wang’s teaching area includes flute lessons, music theory and chamber coaching. Her philosophy has always been to encourage students to perform with their peers and collaborate with one and another to get a better understanding of music.
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Michelle Chang: Graduated from San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is principal flute in San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and El Camino Youth Symphony Orchestra. She also is a winner of El Camino Youth Symphony Concerto Competition, Music Legacy Open Music Competition and U.S. Open Music Competition. Her teaching style is organized and fun with students. She can help students prepare the school orchestra and brass band.
Guitar Teacher:
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Lauren Clapp: Lauren Clapp is a skilled guitarist and dedicated music educator with 15 years of experience. Currently studying music technology at Foothill College, she excels in digital media content creation, sound engineering, and music production. Beyond guitar, Lauren is proficient in bass guitar, drums, percussion, and saxophone. As the lead guitarist of a published band, she showcases her performance prowess, while her published works highlight her creativity. Lauren's teaching philosophy emphasizes personalized, engaging instruction tailored to each student's interests and abilities, fostering creativity and skill development in genres like rock, jazz, and country.
Violin Teacher:
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Atiksh Rao: Mr. Atiksh has music associated at San Jose State University. He has a huge passion for music. Atiksh started playing the piano when he was just 5 years old and started playing for the Certificate of Merit Program not too long after he started and completed 9 levels mastering skills like: theory, technique, sight reading, ear training, and performing the required repertoire. In addition, Atiksh has performed for the school orchestra as 1st violin from middle school. He also started taking lessons with a private teacher to further develop his skills. During Mr. Atiksh enter university, he pursued high level education in music field. He is believes that teaching music will inspire young children to love music and develop more comprehensive musicianship.
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Yonglin Jiang: Ms. Jiang graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music,Shanghai,China . She has over 30 years of extensive teaching experience in violin iessons to kids and adults. Her students won many recognition in their school orchestra for their outstanding violin performances. She was teaching violin lessons to kids from kindergarten all the way to high school. Almost all of her students have successfully auditioned to either California Youth Symphony or San Jose Youth Symphony.
Piano Teacher:
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Mengyue (Jane) Jia: earned her Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) at Claremont Graduate University, majoring in piano and harpsichord performance. Jane has more than 10 years teaching experience. Most of Dr. Jia’s students have studied piano with her for many years, the longest being six years. Some of them won prizes in such as Bach competition and the Yamaha piano competition. Some have achieved excellent results in their music examinations, ABRSM for example. Not only teaching technique, Dr. Jia also emphasizes ear training for her students. She believes a good ear will teach them how to play the piano musically. Dr. Jia has also studied the harpsichord in depth, which enables her to teach the works of early composers like Bach and Mozart in the most authentic way, particularly in dealing with fingering and articulation. Following Dr. Jia, students will develop a comprehensive approach to the piano music, as her motto says, “learn beyond the notes.”
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Loren Alonza: Ms.Alonza achieved a piano performance degree under Dr. Gwendolyn Mok from San Jose State university. She also received a music scholarship to attend Cal-state Eastbay under the tutelage of Dr. Ellen Wasserman. After graduating from university, Ms. Loren joined an International all-female pop/alternative/r&b band in 2010. They toured all over Southeast Asia, Canada and the U.S where they targeted both global and domestic audiences. She was exposed to another realm of musical and artistic performances where she played in front of thousands of fans. In addition, Ms. Loren discovers another way of communicating her passion by composition. Ms. Loren is currently an active performer throughout the Bay Area collaborating with other musicians and has been teaching for over 15 years. Her students participate in the ABRSM, CM exam and the Guild auditions every year. All students have scored reputably high.
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Ms. Yvonne: She came from Taiwan with her BA music education degree. After she got ABRSM piano certificate from SF Conservatory of music in 1992 she started her professional teaching career in Bay Area. She places great emphasis on building students' fundamental skills in playing piano and a comprehensive musicianship. She is very experienced in preparing students for ABRSM exams. Her students achieved the exam in merit and distinction level. Her students also participate CM exam and the Guild auditions every year. All students have scored reputably high.
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Tiffany Pham: Ms. Tiffany is a piano teacher who has had a passion for classical piano since childhood. Fluent in both Vietnamese and English, she has years of experience and special training in working with children and can teach both children and adults effectively. She obtained a B. A. in Music from Valley City State University, and has 2 years of traditional aural training at Ohlone College. Teaching with a style that is adaptive to every student's unique needs, Ms. Tiffany's philosophy is to make sure that students feel motivated and enjoy taking lessons. She also can help student to prepare CM and ABRSM.
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Ha Nguyet: Ha graduated from Lawrence University as a Piano Performance major. She started learning classical piano music at Vietnam National Academy of Music before she attended college in the United States. She had played with Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra as a piano soloist and accompanied a lot of vocalists, violinists, etc. Throughout many years pursuing music, she also won a lot of competitions around Asia. She also help her students got several prize and help her students for piano exams.
Ha's teaching style is relaxed and fun, and she delights in finding just the right approach to inspire each unique student.
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Anna Kostiuchenko: She was born and raised in Ukraine, Kiev. A graduated from Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music in 2016, Master’s Diploma with honors . Anna began her piano studies at the age of six in Kiev , Ukraine . She had a great teacher, Irina Lipatova , who brought to the world a lot of great musicians. After her graduation from Ukrainian Conservatory, she moved to the US in 2017. Anna is a dedicated and gifted teacher. She is a versatile piano performer and instructor who specializes in developing young musicians in an interactive and fun learning environment. She has 9 years of experience in teaching individual lessons. She has many students that had excellent performance and results on exams. As a soloist, Anna is a prizewinner of several international piano competitions including the International Competition for Young Musicians, International Ukrainian Music Piano Competition, International Composers Competition. Anna has participated in many international music festivals in Ukraine and Europe.
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Mariia Bulycheva: Mariia Bulycheva (Ms. Masha) received her music degree from Alfred Schnittke Moscow Music college in Russia in 1998. In addition to receiving a piano pedagogy degree she has also got the degree in Choral Singing. Since graduation Mariia had been working as a piano teacher in Gretchaninov music school for about 15 years preparing students for various solo and ensemble performances. Among her students there are laureates and diploma winners of musical competitions and festivals. Many of Mariia's graduates have continued their studies in secondary and higher musical institutions. Also Mariia had been a chorister of the Church's choir for more than 20 years. After moving to the United States in 2016 Mariia enjoys continuing her career as a piano teacher, sharing her experience with the students and doing her best to teach them the necessary piano skills as well as to love and to understand the music.
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Jess Mak: received her bachelor’s degree at University of British Columbia and further her
master degree in piano pedagogy at Hong Kong Baptist University. She is a registered piano
teacher of Royal Conservatoire of Music and she has been teaching at International Christian
Quality Music Secondary and Primary School since 2012. Her job covers from teaching piano
and music theory to being accompanist and vocal coach. Under the instructions from pianists
Mr. Norman Lee and Mr. Stephen Wong, she studied precisely the relationship between correct
healthy postures and the qualities of music tones and techniques. Consequently her studies led
her into exploration of different posture methods, such as Alexander Techniques to advance
piano playing. Many of her students received high scores from ABRSM or RCM exams and
some of them were award winners from music festivals. In recent years, she has developed a
keen interest in contemporary and choral music. She is also an active member of The Learners
Chorus Hong Kong and performed in various choral concerts including The Bells by
Rachmaninoff, Symphony no. 8 by Mahler, War Requiem by Benjamin Britten etc.
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Lili Cai: Ms. lili has Artist Diploma & M.M with scholarship in piano performance with an emphasis in Collaborative piano, with Dean and pianist David Allen Wehr at Duquesne University; B.M Piano Performance, Colorado State University as a student of Dr. Janet Landreth.Ms.Cai is originally from Guangzhou, China, started her piano study when she was four years old with Ms.Meide Huang, the principal pianist of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. She has passed the ABRSM DipABRSM and won the Silver Medal in the 2012 Tokyo International Piano Competition and the Bronze Medal in the 2014 International Keyboard Odyssiad and Festival.Ms.Cai has over ten years of teaching experience; she has taught private piano lessons to a wide range of students. Ms. Lili has experience using the Faber Piano Adventure, Music Tree Method, and ABRSM(Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) exam. She received her Suzuki training with Kiki Barley in Pittsburgh, PA. Her students earned good grades in ABRSM in both performance and theory exams. Besides, her students have won prizes in the International Open Piano Competition.Ms. Cai performed as an active collaborative pianist, plays with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, and student recitals at Duquesne University. In addition, she has performed in masterclasses such as pianist Barbara Nissman, Shiela Kibbe, Liza Stepanova, Dr. Chi-chen Wu, Anderson, and Roe Piano Duo.
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Vicky Pan: She has a Master Degree in The Boston Conservatory of Music, her major in Music Performance. She has had more than 20 years of teaching experience. She currently a piano professor in the San Jose Christian College. She also currently a member of MTAC (Music Teacher Association of California). She sends students to attend the MTAC CM (Certificate of Merit). She sends students to the Royal School of Music Piano Level Test. She sends students to attend competitions, festivals, etc.