A Bit About Zoë
Owner
I started my music education as a child in the Bay Area. My passion for music stayed with me through out my life and took me study and graduate with a degree in Professional Music and Music Education at Berklee College of Music in Boston. After a move back to the Bay in 2017, I decided to start a small business to offer in-home lessons with a calm, modern approach to music pedagogies.
A Bit About Grace
Grace teaches piano, erhu, and singing. She graduated from Weifang University of China, majoring in music education with a BA degree. She holds a teacher certification in China and has over 8 years of teaching experience in the US and China. She is warm, kind, and patient with all of her students.
A Bit About Sam
Sam Sohmer is a classically-trained pianist, vocalist, producer, and composer who was raised in Wheaton, IL. After taking classical piano lessons from ages 5-15, he began teaching piano himself, while pursuing more of a vocal track in high school. He received the ILMEA All-State honors for choral vocalists twice, placing in the top-four tenors in the state. After high school, Sam attended Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he studied Contemporary Voice and Music Education, before leaving school to move to California and participate in ABC’s American Idol, where he placed in the Top-48. After filming the show, he decided to stay in California and attend Vanguard University to further his Music Education training, as well as study film-scoring and composition. Finally, after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down in-person learning, he transferred to Liberty University, and finished his degree. He now lives in Newport Beach, where he spends the majority of his time writing music for films, teaching classical piano and voice, and spending time with his friends and family.
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A Bit About Gabryl
Gabryl Adarne is a multi-instrumentalist composer, producer, and songwriter from San Francisco, CA specializing in piano and electric bass. From the age of 3, he was introduced to various genres of music and taught how to read music by his mother, with his older brother showing him jazz at age 10 as the catalyst for his self-taught piano journey, leading to him playing piano and singing for the local church services with his family from 4th-12th grade. His musical journey would lead him to study at Berklee College of Music with a degree in Music Business and Music Production and Engineering, while performing in various r&b and jazz bands, playing for studio sessions, and composing and producing his own music and music for films and advertisements. Gabryl was also a member of the San Francisco Boys Chorus growing up, and when he graduated from the Concert level he became a counselor for 4 years at the summer camps, fostering an engaged and fun learning environment for the young choristers to pass on the spirit of music to the younger generations. Gabe loves to inspire and teach people about music's beautiful and healing wonders by making learning fun and engaging, emphasizing that playing should come from a source of love for the music."
A Bit About Paige*
Paige is a fourth year student at UC Berkeley. She took piano lessons for ten years between the ages of 5-15. Since then, she's continued to play a wide range of music from genres such as ragtime, classical, and contemporary. She worked with kids of all ages as a nanny for over five years and has loved working with children. Paige is passionate about playing piano and enjoys passing on this love for music through teaching.
* Paige is our substitute teacher.
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A Bit About Steve
Steve was born in England in 1949 to a musical family and began lessons when he was 7 years old, continuing through the 7 grades of the Royal School of Music. He took music as a Major at College when he was learning to be a School teacher for children aged 7-11. He studied classical music but has also ventured into different genres; rock, reggae, blues, Jazz , Latin, also writing original songs and short pieces. Music has been a constant thread throughout his life. Besides the piano he also plays drums, harmonica and sings. He loves teaching and he loves people, enjoying sharing his musicality with his students.
Steve moved to the USA in 1983 and is now a US citizen living in Oakland with his wife. At present he plays keyboards and sings in two local bands.
A Bit About Karen
Karen is from the Bay Area and has always loved music - from growing up listening to her mom's Cantonese opera and pop albums, discovering punk rock, or experiencing the production of The Magic Flute.
Her music education began first with vocal classes from age 6 - 15 where she learned how to read and sing choral and chamber music, followed by classical piano training at age 11 until college - when she took a detour to study and receive a master's degree in design from Pratt Institute.
As a lifelong learner, music has been a core part of her life, and has always kept a keyboard nearby. Her approach to teaching is to build a solid foundation to engage curiosity for expression and musical exploration. She is looking forward to teaching you the joy of playing piano.
