Provider: Tianping Chen (violin and piano teacher)

Singing, dancing, playing games – children adore this active, play-based learning environment. In this class, children learn foundational musical skills such as tempo, meter, pitch, and dynamics together through educational, movement-based songs and games. Listening skills are developed through exposure to a wide array of musical elements through singing games, basic instruments, and guided listening. Singing, dancing, listening, instruments and reading notation all factor into the musical awakening curriculum.

Provider: Olena Gapey, Piano and cello teacher, with several years of experience teaching students of different ages, trained at the National Academy of Music in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Ms. Gapey has worked at the Mei Li Xin National Music Center in China, National Academy of Music of Ukraine, National Operetta Theatre, Gâtineau Symphony Orchestra, Pembroke National Radio, National Radio of Ukraine and various international chamber music ensembles.

Teacher : Eric Ross

He is a professional bassist and guitarist who has 20 years of performing and teaching experience. He has taught individual guitar lessons and group classes through the Austin Live Music Academy at the University of Texas, and group guitar classes at MSCR in Madison, Wisconsin. He holds a Master’s degree in Jazz Performance from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor’s degree in Jazz Performance from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point.

Eric gives his students the tools they need to achieve their goals and to develop their own voice on the instrument. In addition to learning the fundamentals, he believes that it is important for his students to work on music that inspires them.

Teachers :Natalia Chaboukiani, Erin Gustafson, Tianping (Mary) Chen,  Olena Gapey et Jenna O’Conor.

Natalia Chabukiani:

Natalia studied music in Toronto Glenn Gould School of Royal Conservatory of Music. She obtained a degree in music education from St. Petersburg State Conservatory and Kharkiv High Music School in Ukraine. She continued her music education in The Academy of Music in Tel-Aviv. Natalia performs regularly as a soloist with orchestras, as an accompanist in many chamber music recitals with various musicians and played as a collaborative pianist in Regina Music Club Competitions. In the last few years, Natalia worked as a recital accompanist in Regina University and Conservatory of Performing Arts. She is an experienced music teacher. She enjoys a lot teaching piano and music theory. Lessons available in English.

Erin Gustafson:
I grew up in a small town and began playing piano at a very young age, and participated in our local festival competition every year, also playing trombone in various community ensembles and also played guitar, participating in open mic nights with vocalists.  This experience led me to pursue my music studies at uOttawa under the study of Frédéric Lacroix as well as a joint biology degree, including collaborative work with instrumentalists and vocalists. I have been teaching for approximately 5 years, both privately and at various institutions throughout the city. My main goal with my students is to foster their love for music and help them develop learning and practicing skills that they can use in all areas of their life. I take a comprehensive approach with my students and include ear-training, composition, theoretical study, listening exercises and standard method book instruction to create a well-rounded curriculum that is tailored to the needs of the individual students. One of my favourite things about teaching is developing the teacher-student relationship and getting to know my students’ interests and aspirations to try to make the educational content as relevant to each student as possible, and use their skills and successes to help them develop their weaker skills. “ Lessons available in English.

Mme Tianping (Mary) Chen :
Tianping (Mary) Chen began violin studies at the age of 4 in Shanghai and furthered her performance studies with teachers from the Queen’s University. At age of 10, she starts piano as secondary instrument. She plays in different orchestra include Kingston Symphony Orchestra and Ottawa Chamber Orchestra. She has been teach both violin and piano in the Ottawa/Gatineau Region include Ottawa School of Music and Capital Music Academy since 2011. In addition, she has run private studios which providing lessons to hundreds of children over her 10 years of teaching experience. Ms.Chen love to providing love as well as music experience to her students. Lessons available in English.

Olena Gapey : 

Piano and cello teacher, with several years of experience teaching students of different ages, trained at the National Academy of Music in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Ms. Gapey has worked at the Mei Li Xin National Music Center in China, National Academy of Music of Ukraine, National Operetta Theatre, Gâtineau Symphony Orchestra, Pembroke National Radio, National Radio of Ukraine and various international chamber music ensembles.

Jenna O’Conor

Educated at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Wisconsin, Ms. O’Conor specializes in Suzuki methods for teaching violin and has experience preparing students for the Conservatory of Music exams. With over 20 years of experience teaching music, Ms. O’Conor will be delighted to share her expertise with our students.

Teacher : Yves LacoursièreIt knows how to laugh and cry, it can bring sweetness or power to every piece of music. It is considered one of the closest instruments to the human voice and has the magical power to take the listener through a very varied emotional landscape.

More than 170 years ago, Adolph Sax wanted to build an instrument with a warm sound. Always as fascinating and harmonious, the saxophone remains among the most beautiful pieces of brass in the world.

Incomparably versatile, few styles resist: traditional music blues, rock funk and soul, jazz of course, but also electro and metal – there are few other instruments in as many genres.

• Teachers : Anna Klochkova, Tianping Chen and Suzie Luton, Jenna O’Conor

Mme Tianping CHEN :
Tianping (Mary) Chen began violin studies at the age of 4 in Shanghai and furthered her performance studies with teachers from the Queen’s University. At age of 10, she starts piano as secondary instrument. She plays in different orchestra include Kingston Symphony Orchestra and Ottawa Chamber Orchestra. She has been teach both violin and piano in the Ottawa/Gatineau Region include Ottawa School of Music and Capital Music Academy since 2011. In addition, she has run private studios which providing lessons to hundreds of children over her 10 years of teaching experience. Ms.Chen love to providing love as well as music experience to her students. Lessons available in English.

M. Erik Johnson-Scherger

Erik Johnson-Scherger began classical training on the violin at the age of 6, and followed that through to the completion of a Master’s of Music from the University of Ottawa in 2019, where he studied with Yehonatan Berick and Yosuke Kawasaki. Erik also holds a Bachelor’s of Music Performance and a Diploma in Chamber Music from Wilfrid Laurier University, where he studied violin, viola, and chamber music with Jerzy Kaplanek and other members of the Penderecki String Quartet, in addition to studying improvisation with Kathryn Ladano. Erik’s current projects include Duo d’Asyl with classical guitarist Simon Berniquez, with whom he won Ottawa Chamberfest’s 2019 ChamberPints competition, as well as the chamber-jazz quartet Side-Eye and Grace, whose first album, Liminal Spaces, was released in March 2020. Erik is also a member of the Phosphor Quartet, a newly formed, Ottawa-based string quartet with a mandate to program classical and contemporary music in new, postmodern contexts. In addition to serving as violin soloist for the Canadian premiere of Tyler’s Suite in 2019, put on by the Ottawa-based choral ensemble Tone Cluster, Erik has performed with the Kingston and Ottawa Symphony Orchestras as a section violinist and mandolinist, given concerts of avante-garde and improvised music with the NUMUS String Orchestra and Improv Ensemble, and has served as sideman, session musician, and/or bandleader for country, rock, disco/R&B, and jazz projects. He is passionate about drawing on these diverse musical experiences to provide a well-rounded pedagogical framework for his students, including both traditional classical repertoire and the study of improvisation as a vehicle to improve musicianship and instrumental technique

Mrs Anna Klochkova

“Mrs Anna Klochkova is a graduate of the Glinka National Conservatory in Russia and holds a Master’s degree in music pedagogy.
Anna is a professional concert musician who regularly performs as the first violin with various philharmonic orchestras.
She has toured in various European countries (France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Scandinavian countries and others), including accompanying such world-renowned masters as Mstislav Rastropovich and Yuri Bashmet.
In Canada, Anna is a member of the Kanata Philharmonic Orchestra and various chamber music ensembles in Ontario.
She is an experienced educator, a member of the Ontario Music Teachers’ Association, and has been teaching students of all levels for many years.
Anna is English speaking, but has a long history of working in various French schools. “

Jenna O’Conor

Educated at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Wisconsin, Ms. O’Conor specializes in Suzuki methods for teaching violin and has experience preparing students for the Conservatory of Music exams. With over 20 years of experience teaching music, Ms. O’Conor will be delighted to share her expertise with our students.

• Teacher : Nicholas Cooper, professional musician and orchestra conductor

At Mini Stage Band, students will develop their musical abilities by learning to play their group instruments, such as guitar, electric bass, drums, piano, ukulele. During the lessons, students will learn to play at least two of these instruments.

They will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with rock and pop songs, levels of complication from the simplest to the most elaborate, having the opportunity to perform on stage.

• Teacher : Etienne Renard

The objective of this workshop is to make students who already have an individual musical practice play together but want to experiment with a collective practice. The purpose is to present pieces on stage. This work will involve developing listening, building a good rhythmic solidity, finding one’s place in the collective, learning musical codes and notations, exploring new musical styles, taming the scene and its challenges!