Celicia Thendean, age 16, started to learn piano with her mother and Prof. Anna Poklewski. Celicia then continued advanced her studies with Ilana Vered. She had her first solo recital in October 2022 to raise money for her high school music program. Celicia has soloed with many orchestras including the Brunensis Virtuosi Orchestra, Livermore-Amador Symphony, Palo Alto Philharmonic, and the SEEN Orchestra. Celicia won top prizes in numerous piano competitions including the Claudette Sorel Piano Competition, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Young Artist competition, Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition, Philadelphia International Music Festival in both virtual and in person competition, Marilyn Mindell Piano Competition Senior Division, and MTAC VOCE State Winner. During summer, Celicia attended Music Fest Perugia, Southeastern Piano Festival, Vivace Music Festival, Philadelphia International Music Festival, and Edward Auer Summer Workshop. She won the Vivace Award at Vivace Music Festival in 2020 and was invited to perform in Wilmington, North Carolina alongside with Prof. Marina Lomazov, Prof. Joseph Rackers, and Prof. Ara Gregorian. Besides piano, Celicia enjoys playing cello, oboe, english horn, and clarinet. She was selected in the 2021 and 2022 All-State Honor Ensembles on cello, oboe, and jazz piano, and was the recipient of the Ed Wolfe Scholarship for her outstanding performance in the All State Middle School Big Band.
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Ewen Tsai began her music studies at an early age learning piano and cello in Taiwan. She holds double master degrees in both Music Performance and Education from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA and earned her bachelor’s degree in Music from Washington State University with President’s Honor Roll. Ewen has over 20 years teaching experience, has been on both string and music education faculty at various institutions, and won awards for her research on the Integrated Music Curriculum. Ewen’s arrangements have been performed worldwide, including 100 Cello Concert in Taiwan (2020) and Cello Paradiso in the 49th Istanbul Music Festival (2021). Ewen’s students have won top honors in many competitions, evaluations and orchestra auditions.
Ewen enjoys performing all genres of music and cooperating with various arts forms including dance and exhibitions. To further enhance her musical career, Ewen actively participated in masterclasses and workshops, including Mischa Maisky (cello), Jennifer Culp (cello), Forrest Kinney (composition), Pablo Ziegler (composition). From 2012-2019, Ewen represented North California to perform in the annual MTAC convention. In 2016-2020, Ewen was elected two terms Music Teachers’ Association of California Branch President, hosted and coordinated concerts, competitions, student recitals, masterclasses and lectures.
(The Music Teachers’ Association of California®, incorporated in 1897, is a professional organization dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in music education. With over 6,000 teachers, Certificate of Merit® (CM) is the most participated music evaluation program in the United States.)
https://www.annapoklewskiacademyofmusic.com/piano-instructors
Fonny Chandra started playing piano at the age of four. She gave her first performance at that age in a children’s television program. By the age of 9, she had appeared in many concerts and television programs. In the same year, she joined Yamaha Junior Original Concert (JOC), an organization that teaches music composition to talented young musicians. She composed several pieces while studying in JOC. She made several appearances throughout Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia.
In 2004, she won Notre Dame de Namur Concerto Competition and performed Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Redwood Symphony. In summer 2006, Ms. Chandra was invited, and attended Bosendörfer Piano Academy in Vienna.
Ms. Chandra has over 17 years of teaching experience in piano lessons. Some of her students have been accepted in music conservatories in China. In 2002, she gave a piano workshop to piano teachers in Surabaya, Indonesia, and became one of the co-founders of Quatro Music Education School there.
In 2007, with her teacher Ms. Anna Poklewski, and her colleague Ms. Bianca Roesli, she founded the Anna Poklewski Academy of Music.
Hansen Liu is a music educator who is based in Pleasanton, San Francisco East Bay. With music performance degrees in Oboe and Piano performance from Carnegie Mellon and University of the Pacific, Hansen strives to help children and interested adults alike to discover the joy of music. When he is not teaching, recording, making music, or volunteering his time with the various local musical events, Hansen enjoys spending time with family, playing tennis, and various activities around the SF bay area.
Mr. Aubel taught orchestra, band, jazz, and choir for 35 years at Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton California. In the last decade, the Amador Valley High orchestras have performed at the California Music Educators State Conference 4 times and the band has played at the Midwest National Conference twice. Mr. Aubel was honored to be named “Teacher of the Year” in his school district and is currently active throughout the state as an adjudicator, guest conductor, professional musician, and mentor for new music teachers.