Jiye Hayden (Founder)
Jiye Hayden, born in South Korea, is a professional pianist, vocalist and music instructor based in the greater Los Angeles area. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from California State University, Northridge, as well as a Piano Teaching Certificate from Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, South Korea.
Exposed to music from a young age, she received her first piano lessons at age six and later learned multiple instruments, including violin, saxophone and guitar. Over the years, she has performed in various roles as a musician in a variety of venues, including as: saxophonist in the Olympia Hotel in Seoul, bar pianist at Four Seasons Resort in Santa Barbara, pianist/keyboardist in numerous musical theater productions, and chorist at Carnegie Hall and in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Walt Disney Hall. As a freelance collaborative pianist and staff accompanist at CSUN, she also has extensive experience with accompanying instrumentalists and vocalists in recitals and competitions.
Ms. Hayden’s career as a music teacher also began at a relatively young age – over the past twenty years, she has taught over a thousand students. As a result of this extensive teaching experience, she has developed a flexible method that adapts to and nurtures each child’s individual learning abilities, including children with ADHD and autism. Her greatest passion is teaching children and guiding them on their journey to becoming independent musicians and music lovers.
Joey Berrellez (Manager)
Joey was born in Valencia, California as the youngest of 5 children. At age 6, he began learning how to play his favorite music from movies, television, and video games on the piano. He especially excelled at creating his own unique compositions.
During middle school, Joey taught himself to play the guitar. He then taught himself to play the alto saxophone in high school after joining the marching band. To further aid in his musical journey, he also took a college-level music theory class. At the age of 18, Joey helped form a rock band with several friends as the lead guitarist.
After taking a hiatus from school to work and perform, Joey auditioned and was accepted to the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communications at California State University Northridge where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Music in Commercial and Media Writing. He found his passion for teaching during college when multiple friends asked him to teach their children different instruments and music theory.
During his time at CSUN, Joey gained skills teaching, composing, arranging, conducting, and performing. He uses these skills to help students learn their favorite songs from media alongside classical pieces and fundamentals they need to grow. His teaching philosophy is that music should be as fun as it is difficult, and that every student requires a unique approach to keep them on the right path.
Joey now plays and teaches 8 different instruments, and he has performed at world-renowned venues such as the Whisky A Go Go, Disneyland, and even the Hollywood Bowl.
Agnese Gallenzi
Agnese Gallenzi is an Italian American Soprano. Award-winner of the 2022 District at the Metropolitan Laffont Competition, she made her international debut at Opera Stara Zagora with the role of Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, in April 2022. She started singing at a very young age and she has always performed in choirs since she was 10 years old. She graduated in vocal performance 2016 at Conservatorio G. B Pergolesi di Fermo (ITA) with high honors and pursued her Master of Music at California State University Northridge.
At CSUN she performed a variety of lead roles including the role of Mimi’ last March 2023 for which she received much acclaim for her interpretation. Other roles she performed include Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Musetta in La Bohème, Micaela in Carmen, Anna Maurrant in Street Scene, Fiordiligi in Cosi’ Fan Tutte. Agnese has received many accolades and much critical acclaim for her warm sound, her crystalline clear coloratura, accompanied by soaring high notes and her poignant interpretation of the operatic female characters.
Agnese has been a voice teacher since 2016. Her main goal as teacher is on giving her students the instruments to trust their voice and allow them to master it and deploy it to its full potential. She mostly focuses on breathing “grounding” exercises to connect body and voice to allow its full and natural release.
Alex Trombley
Alex, from Cleveland, Ohio, is a passionate voice instructor and theatre/acting educator dedicated to inspiring the next generation of performers. He earned his degree at the University of Miami, where he studied theatre arts, film, and musical theatre in a conservatory-style training environment. With a background in voice, acting, directing, screenwriting, and technical theatre, he brings a well-rounded understanding of both the creative and technical aspects of performance.
With over a decade of experience in the performing arts, Alex helps students develop strong vocal technique, stage presence, and storytelling skills. His warm and encouraging approach allows him to tailor instruction to each student’s unique needs, ensuring they grow into confident and expressive performers.
Having discovered his love for music, acting, and performance at the age of five, he understands the importance of nurturing talent in a supportive environment at any stage of life. Whether coaching students in vocal techniques, refining acting choices, or shaping stage performances, he strives to help every performer find their artistic voice and reach their full potential.
Ana Paula Farano
Ana Paula Farano is a first-generation Brazilian and Guatemalan soprano, and a music educator. She previously worked with the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s education programs where she is assisted in the startup of Youth Chorus LA. In addition, Ms. Farano is the collegiate liaison of Kodály Association of Southern California, a member of the American Choral Directors’ Association, has participated in CCDA’s Choral Leadership Academy, and has sung at CASMEC and Monterey Jazz Festival.
In addition to choral music, her performance experience includes singing jazz, música brasileira, soul, musical theatre, opera, contemporary music, and liturgy. Ana Paula has extensively worked with university and community outreach ensembles as a music teacher, section leader, director, and administrator. She even contracted a 46-member orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall at 19 years old.
Her passion, however, lies in teaching and giving back the beauty of singing and learning to play an instrument through private and classroom instruction. One of the most gratifying experiences for Ms. Farano is witnessing her students discover that they are capable of far more than their mind can imagine, and watching them become informed and deep-thinking musicians and human beings.
Ms. Farano seeks to ignite this love for music in every lesson and do so in a positive environment that encourages taking chances while also embracing good practices such as commitment, healthy technique, and being kind to ourselves as we learn.
Andrew Greenberg
Andrew Greenberg is a freelance percussion educator, performer, and composer based in the San Fernando Valley. He attended Pasadena City College before getting his Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance at California State University, Northridge.
Andrew has worked and continues to work with multiple schools, including Chaminade College Preparatory, Simi Valley High School, Burbank High School, and John Burroughs High School. He is also the principal percussionist for Mission Opera.
He currently teaches mallet percussion, drumset, timpani, and beginner piano.
Anzhela Davtyan
Anzhela Davtyan is a pianist, music educator based in Los Angeles. She was born in Yerevan, Armenia, where she received her first piano lessons at age 6. Anzhela made her concerto debut at the age of 9, playing Haydn’s D major piano concerto along with Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp minor. She went on to complete her musical education at the Arno Babajanyan Musical Pedagogical college in Yerevan, where she obtained a Bachelor degree with honors in solo performance, ensemble performance, accompanying and pedagogy.
After moving to Los Angeles, she continued her piano studies at the California State University of Northridge under the direction of Dr. Dmitry Rachmanov, Professor Edward Francis and engaged in pedagogical activities and ensemble performing. Anzhela holds both Bachelor of music degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy and Master degree in piano performance from the California State University of Northridge. Her teaching experience includes maintaining a private piano studio for the past 16 years. She has an extensive experience in performing on stage and teaching classical piano lessons to students of all ages and skill levels. Besides teaching privately, she also has much experience working at the major music studios in Los Angeles, such as Knauer Music School, Musonia Music School, Angeles Music academy.
Dana Lewis Howell
Dana Lewis Howell holds degrees in music composition from UCLA (PhD), San Francisco Conservatory of Music (MM) and Carnegie Mellon University (BFA). His teachers included Leonardo Balada, William Critser, Nancy Galbraith, Paul Chihara, David Conte, Roger Bourland and Ian Krause. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and pursued dual degrees in composition and clarinet performance before moving to California to continue studies.
Dana Howell currently serves as Instrumental Music Director at Highland Hall Waldorf School. Since coming to Los Angeles in 2004, he has been an active composer, performer, conductor and teacher, previously holding positions as Music Director at St. John Eudes Church and organist at Echo Park United Methodist Church. He taught composition and theory at the Brevard Music Center summer festival from 2008 to 2012 and studied at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau.
Dianne Meyer
Dianne Meyer, a southern California native, is an experienced piano instructor, elementary music educator, and church choir director/accompanist; she has also performed in numerous musical theatre productions as music director/pianist. She started playing the piano at age five and cello at age eight. She studied piano with Pierce College professor Rowan Taylor and cello with Edwin Geber, former cellist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Coming from a musical family, she has sung, and played cello and piano, in numerous family concerts, as well as performing piano trios with her mother and brother throughout the Los Angeles area.
Dianne has been singing in church and school choirs since age 10. She was recruited to play cello in the West Valley Chamber Orchestra at the age of 13. She began accompanying as a high school student, and accompanied the advanced mixed choir and show choir at El Camino Real High School.
While studying at Brigham Young University, Dianne directed church choirs; she also played cello in the BYU Philharmonic and Mormon Youth Symphony. She has played in two-piano four-hand performances as well as piano duets with several collaborators. She has taught elementary music for 25 years, with an emphasis on vocal instruction and performance. One highlight was a performance with Round Meadow Elementary School chorus students at Carnegie Hall in 2018.
She enjoys working with students of all ages, and she has taught students between the ages of 5 and 75. Dianne loves to teach students the artistry of playing the piano as well as the musical knowledge to become independent musicians. She loves to enrich each student’s life with a skill that will last them a lifetime and bring them joy.
Diego Guevara
Diego is a multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter whose love of music started at a young age. He grew up playing in various bands throughout his teenage years and developed his musicianship at Huntington Beach High School’s Academy for the Performing Arts program as a Pop Music major.
Upon graduating in 2013, Diego was admitted to the University of California at Riverside and received his Bachelor of Arts in Music (2017) which encompassed a variety of compositional and performance studies on a multitude of instruments.
He now resides in the San Fernando Valley as an educator, performer, singer-songwriter/producer and is currently releasing projects as a member of the duo D.A.N.O.
Evan Pouchak
Evan is a professional drummer currently residing in Los Angeles, CA. He has been playing drums for over 20 years. Evan graduated from the University of Louisville in 2006 with a degree in Music Performance, and since 2004 he has taught drum set, classical and rudimental snare drum, and guitar.
While living in Louisville, Evan was a founding member of Louisville groups Paradigm, The Deloreans, and The Pass. While a member of the fusion rock and jazz group Paradigm, Evan toured across the United States and opened for such groups as the Benvento/Russo Duo, Charlie Hunter, Club D’Elf, and the Lee Boys. Since moving to Los Angeles in 2009, Evan has recorded and/or played with The Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra, the Sean Stackpoole Quartet, West LA Fadeaway, Jay Stapleton, and June Aja.
Evan strives to instill the fundamentals of music in his students in a fun, creative, and engaging way. He believes it is important for students to develop the ability to solve musical problems from a place of creativity and positive contribution. If a student can learn to do so early, she can take that ability with her throughout her career.
Gregory Sim
Gregory Sim is a multi-genre pianist residing in Los Angeles, with experience across classical, jazz, pop, rock, and funk. His performance history includes venues such as the Soraya, Gibson Amphitheater, Rose Parade, Vitello’s, and The Baked Potato. He also performs frequently in small group settings, and was featured in a jazz combo in Downbeat magazine.
Born November 3rd, 1997 in Jakarta, Indonesia, he moved to the United States with his family in 1999, and began classical piano lessons at 8 years old in 2005. The next year, he began learning the trumpet, and continued to study both instruments until 17, when he decided to focus on piano.
Gregory has been teaching since 2015, with an emphasis on jazz piano, music theory, and ear training. From 2018 to 2021, he attended California State University Northridge under the Help Alpert Foundation Scholarship, where he graduated with a BM in Jazz Studies/Piano Performance.
Jiayang (Becky) Zhang
Becky Zhang, born in China, is now a Los Angeles based opera singer, vocal and piano teacher. She received her Bachelor’s of Music Education from China, and is currently in her last year of her Master’s of Vocal Performance program at CSU, Northridge. She also holds Elementary School Music Teaching Qualification Certificate in China.
She started learning the piano at the age of seven, and later began studying vocal and Chinese percussion instruments.
Over the years, she has performed in various countries, including China, the United States, Japan, and Spain. Such as solo performances invited by the Madrid City Government, and chorist with LA Symphony. She always has fun when singing operas. Some of her favorite roles she has performed before include: Collette from L’ivrogne corrigé, Musetta from La Boheme, and Pamina from The Magic Flute.
Her teaching career began at a relatively early age. During these years she taught piano, singing and music theory to children of all ages. She always loves to develop different methods with children that allows them to have fun while learning music. Music is full of magic. Becky hopes that all students can feel the beauty of music, gain knowledge and go further and further on their music journey.
Kevin Breeding
Kevin Breeding teaches violin and viola in the San Fernando Valley and surrounding areas. He teaches all levels. Kevin started playing violin at the age of ten. He has received both his Bachelors and Master’s degree from California State University Northridge. He has participated in many competitions.
Kevin Breeding has performed in Los Angeles, New York, Switzerland, France, and Italy. In his free time, Kevin enjoys video games after a long day of practicing, teaching, and working.
Lucas Heininger
Lucas Heininger has been a drummer and percussionist since 2013, and has a background in marching percussion, jazz drum set, and classical concert percussion. He attended Cal State University, Northridge where he trained as a percussion performance major under the tutelage of Aaron Smith and John Magnussen. While obtaining his education Lucas studied more extensive areas of music, such as keyboard percussion, auxiliary percussion, world percussion, and music theory.
Lucas has performed in a wide variety of musical settings, including large orchestral works such as Puccini’s opera La Bohème, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Brahm’s Symphony No. 4, and Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1; the musicals Fiddler on the Roof, the Little Mermaid, and Once on this Island; two tours with the CSUN Wind Ensemble to Seattle and Hawaii; as well as performing with several bands as a drum set player, including his own jazz combo where he is the lead singer and drummer. In addition to his performance career, Lucas teaches drums, percussion, piano, guitar, and vocals as a private instructor.
Marisa Lifquist
Marisa Lifquist is currently a student at California State University, Northridge, pursuing her bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance. Within the piano department, she has been a student leader as president of the CSUN Piano Club from fall 2021 to spring 2023. She also has been the recipient of multiple CSUN music department scholarships including the Colburn Classical Music Scholarship, Samuel John Swartz Memorial Scholarship, and most recently the Joan Thompson Scholarship. Additionally, she received the award of outstanding piano department student in the spring of 2022.
Marisa has had the pleasure studying and performing at summer festivals such as Adamant Music School in 2019 and 2022, and the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in July 2023.
Michael Fandetti
Mike Fandetti is a Los Angeles based multi-instrumental musician who has been teaching saxophone, guitar, and bass professionally since 2015. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at CSUN in saxophone performance, and began teaching private lessons after graduate school.
Since beginning his teaching career, he has also included ukulele, flute, clarinet, and piano to his roster of instruments he teaches. In addition to teaching private lessons for over 10 years, he also works with larger groups (including rock bands and classical ensembles) of students at a time, getting bands ready for concerts and competitions.
He teaches all ages, and has had two students get accepted into the music colleges of their choice! Mike specializes in many different genres of music, but has taught mostly jazz music, latin, classical, and rock (for guitar, bass and ukulele).
Tiffany Lantello
Tiffany is a performer, composer, and educator based in Los Angeles. She received a Bachelor’s of Music from Cal State Northridge, where she studied film scoring, classical trumpet performance, vocal performance, and jazz arranging. While earning a Master’s in Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts, she continued her compositional and performance practice in the styles of jazz, salsa, contemporary, and North Indian classical music.
Currently, Tiffany is working as a composer, arranger, and orchestrator on a musical, she’s singing as a soloist and section leader at a church in Pasadena, and teaches students in voice, piano, guitar, ukulele, trumpet, and composition.
Timothy Franco
Timothy Franco graduated from California State University, Northridge with a bachelor’s degree in Media Composition. As a multi-instrumentalist, he is able to teach piano, guitar, bass, ukulele, voice, Pro Tools, and multiple brass instruments. His versatility in musical knowledge and background in composition allows him to adapt to any student and provide them with music tailored for their level and interests.
Una Sung
Una Sung is an innovative music-media composer, piano teacher, and performer from South Korea. She earned her bachelor’s degree for Music in Commercial and Media Writing from the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication at California State University Northridge.
Using the skills and knowledge she gained while studying at CSUN, Una has been teaching children as young as 2 years old how to play piano and understand music. Her approach to teaching is shaped by her diverse experiences as not only a musician, but also as a babysitter, allowing her to incorporate creative techniques that inspire students to explore their musical expression.
Her extensive work with children has further enhanced her skillset by allowing her to connect with young learners, foster patience, empathy, and it has given her a deep understanding of how to tailor lessons to each student’s unique needs and learning style. Una focuses on nurturing a love for music in her students while honing her ability to inspire creativity and instill discipline.
Varad Sahasrabudhe
Varad Sahasrabudhe is a musician, session guitarist, and composer noted for his broad musical style. His compositions blend his cultural heritage, integrating ideas and sounds inspired from his Marathi roots. At the age of 18, he moved from Pune, India, to Los Angeles to pursue his musical interests.
While studying in Los Angeles he has performed alongside renowned performers like John Beasley, Ralph Moore, Carl Allen, Jason Moran, Ernie Watts, Keith Fiddmont, Kim Richmond, and was invited by Stanley Clarke to open for him and N4ever band at the BroadStage. He has also been mentored by Ken Rosser, Andrew Renfroe and many more. Varad’s commitment to his craft was honored with the JEXA Emerging Artist Grant, Herb Albert Scholarship at CSUN 2024, Musician’s Institute Musicianship Scholarship in 2020 and the Takamine Acoustic Scholarship in 2021.
Immersed in the vast fabric of Los Angeles’ numerous genres and cultures, and combining them with his own cultural heritage, he has established a dynamic musical language in an effort to make an honest stamp on modern music. His most recent work is an experimental EP “The Ideal Foray” created and performed in conjunction with Mann Bipin and Hyunjin Kim.
Varad has been teaching since 2019 across India and Los Angeles, focusing on guitar rudiments, techniques and emphasis on jazz language. He teaches primarily Guitar but he also teaches fundamentals of Piano and Bass.
