Teachers

Please click on the instrument which interests you:

Junko Takahashi, Program Director

Junko Takahashi attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where shereceived her B.M. in piano performance under the tutelage of Anton Nel and Fernando Laires.  She received her M. M. in piano at the Catholic University of America under Thomas Mastroianni, where she won numerous concerto competitions.  She is currently completing her D.M.A. at Catholic University.

Since moving to Maryland, Ms. Takahashi has maintained an active studio of over 50 students and performed around the DC metropolitan area. Her students have won both state and local competitions. She is the Founder and Director of Musical Expressions, Inc., a music school that now boasts over three hundred students in the southern Montgomery County area. 

Ms. Takahashi has been on the board of the Montgomery County Music Teachers Association, Maryland Music Teachers Association and Washington Music teachers association, where she has organized and judged numerous student competitions and recitals.  From 2007 to 2009, she served as President of the MCMTA and currently she is serving as a president of Maryland Music Teachers Association 

Piano

Christine Couch

Christine Couch is a native of Carrollton, Georgia.  Her interest in music began at age six with piano and continued on through high school.  She was the first recipient of the Don Hall Scholarship, graduating from Carrollton High School in 1998.  In May 2002, she graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from University of West Georgia, where she studied with George Mann and participated in many solo and collaborative performances.  She won the Kelley Drake Memorial Scholarship presented by Sigma Alpha Iota and the Music Club Arts Award presented by the UWG music department and she participated in the UWG European Tour in 1999.  In August of 2003, Ms. Couch moved to Maryland and began teaching with Musical Expressions.  In 2004, she entered the Master of Music program in Piano Pedagogy at Catholic University of America under the study of Dr. Ivo Kaltchev.  She anticipates graduation from CUA in May of 2007.  Ms. Couch is the Spanish choir director and piano accompanist for the Spirit choir at Shrine of St. Jude in Rockville, Maryland.
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Sara Cronan

Sara Cronan received her B.A. in Music majoring in Voice and Viola Performance from Bennington College in Bennington, VT in 2000. She has been teaching piano and voice through Musical Expressions since its inception. Sara has been involved with music in many capacities ranging from orchestral instrumentalist and onstage vocalist, to Musical Director's assistant, stage hand, and composer. In 2002, The Levine School of Music commissioned her to write a musical, which became “The Barnyard Blues”. Her range of experience allows her to prepare budding performers in a sensitive and understanding manner.
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Tessa Hartle

Tessa Hartle recently completed her Master's degree in collaborative piano at the University of Maryland, where she was a student of Rita Sloan. While at Maryland, she served as rehearsal pianist/coach with the Maryland Opera Studio, and also worked with Maryland's Women Chorus, Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Undergraduate Opera Workshop. Prior to her studies at Maryland, Tessa graduated with highest honors from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's of music in piano performance. Her principal teachers were Louis Nagel and Katherine Collier, and she frequently worked with Martin Katz on song repertoire. Tessa has also spent three summers at Aspen Music Festival and School as a collaborative artist, where she primarily worked as a vocal pianist and continued her studies with Ms. Sloan. Tessa currently serves as accompanist to the Maryland Boy Choir and is the pianist for Burke Presbyterian Church in Burke, VA.
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Gretchen Heller

Gretchen Heller is a 2003 graduate of The University of Michigan with a B.A. with honors in English and a 2007 graduate of The University of North Carolina-Greensboro with a B.A. with honors in Violin Performance. She attended UNCG on a full scholarship as the violinist in the prestigious Liberace Trio. Gretchen has participated in many music programs including Interlochen, where she was a member of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, Meadowmount, which she attended as a scholarship recipient, ARIA International, where she studied with Gregory Fulkerson from Oberlin and David Russell from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Ohio Light Opera. In 1997, Gretchen was also one of four violinists selected from the state of Florida to perform with members of the London Symphony Orchestra in a special chamber music concert. While at the University of Michigan, she studied with Andrew Jennings as a Violin Performance major and was a member of the University Philharmonia Orchestra as well as Assistant Concertmaster of the Michigan Pops Orchestra her freshman year. In addition to her vast orchestral experience, Gretchen is also an accomplished soloist, winning first and second place awards in violin, piano, and composition events.

Gretchen currently enjoys a career as a published composer with the FJH Music Company and Warner Bros. Publications. Four of her compositions entitled "Ballad of the Matador", "Silver Ridge Rag", "Valse in A Minor", and "Tale of the Tempest" were chosen for the National Federation of Music Club’s list of required piano solos for use in competitions and evaluations throughout the country. Silver Ridge Rag was also the winning submission in the Lynn Freeman Olson National Composition Contest in 1993.

Gretchen is a member of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra under conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky and has been active as both a violin and piano instructor, most recently at the Cary School of Music in North Carolina.
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Kanae Hirazawa

Kanae Hirazawa was born and raised in Japan, and began her musical training in piano at age four.  As a high school student, she had the distinct honor of participating in the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music where she worked with pianist Falvai Shandor.  Kanae received her B. M. in Piano Performance in 2006 from the Tokyo College of Music, where she studied with renowned pianist Yuko Sekine.  She received her M. M. in Piano Performance at The University of Texas at Austin, where she studied with Dr. Betty Mallard.  She also attended many master classes in America and studied with Claude Frank, Alexander Kobrin, and Ruth Slenczynska.

Numerous awards in piano include third prize at the Japan Soloist Competition in 2002, first prize at the Tokyo College of Music Piano Competition in 2004, and first prize at the New Artist Competition in 2006.  Kanae received the Mary D. Bold Scholarship and The Mary Frances Bowles Couper Endowed Presidential Scholarship at the University of Texas at Austin.
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Sarah Horick

Sarah Horick holds a Master of Music and a Master of Arts from Florida State University and a Bachelor of Music from Furman University.  She is currently working toward her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Catholic University of America where she will serve as a teaching assistant in the music theory sequence.  Over the course of her collegiate work, Ms. Horick has studied voice with Trudy Fuller and Wanda Brister, piano with James Nalley, and flute with Cynthia Hopkins.  Ms. Horick has performed both in chamber recitals and as a soloist with large ensembles and specializes in the performance of new music. 

Chrisitana Iheadindu

Christiana Iheadindu, originally from Bucharest, Romania, started playing piano at the age of six. She studied at the National Conservatory of Bucharest and she performed in various recitals, competitions and concerts. In 2004 Christiana moved to the United States to continue her studies as a musician. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree in both Piano Performance and Professional Writing from Southeastern Louisiana University and a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from the University of Maryland, College Park.  Christiana is the prize winner of several piano competitions including the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Concerto Competition and the International Piano Competition of Pietra Ligure, Italy. 

Christiana is a dedicated teacher, with a strong passion for music and learning. She served as a piano faculty member at the University of Maryland College Park, after previously having taught at the Southeastern Louisiana University Community Music School.  In addition to teaching piano, Christiana is currently involved in early childhood music education. She continues to maintain a performance career and her future plans include a Doctor of Musical Arts diploma.[top of page]

Teddy Kernizan

Teddy Roger Kernizan was born in Brooklyn, NY and grew up in central New Jersey.  He began playing the piano at the age of five in Medford, NJ under the instruction of Marta Caramuta.  He has participated in various festivals and competitions, including a Gifted Young People’s Concert at Steinway Hall in NY and a Piano Festival at Jacob’s Music in Philadelphia which was followed by a performance on Channel 6 ABC: “Puerto Rican Panorama” Broadcast.  

Teddy graduated from the Westminster Choir College of Rider University in 2005 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy.  During his time at Westminster he studied under Jose Ramos Santana and Jim Goldsworthy.  He also took conducting classes under the instruction of Dr. James Jordan, Dr. Andrew Megill, and Lynnel Joy Jenkins.  Teddy made his conducting debut in Vermont’s Barre Opera House in March 2007, conducting Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’.

Teddy has served as piano faculty at the Settlement Music School and at the Westminster Conservatory and runs an active piano studio from his home in Kensington, MD.  He is currently finishing his M.M. in Piano Performance and pedagogy at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC under the study of Jose Ramos-Santana.

Andrew Malone

Andrew Malone began his musical studies in Egypt, and studied in various countries while traveling with is family.  He subsequently went on to enroll at the Catholic University of America, studying piano performance with Dr. James Litzelman.  He performs regularly as a solo and chamber musician around the greater Washington, DC area and has maintained his own private studio since 2004.  Andrew is the first alumnus of Musical Expressions, where he studied with Junko Takahashi, to return as a teacher.  In addition to playing the piano, he is also an accomplished oboist, and has studied the fields of music education and voice.  He has a passion for performing and teaching the classical repertoire, and a love of passing his knowledge on to younger generations.
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Dara McCorkle

Dara McCorkle
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Voice

Sarah Horick

See bio above under piano instructors.

Katie Jagielski

Katie Jagielski began studying voice and piano at the age of 12 in Baltimore, MD.  She received her Bachelors in Music Education from Shenandoah Conservatory in 2005.  After two successful years of teaching Chorus and General Music for Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Annapolis, MD, she decided to further how own musical education and moved to the DC area to work on her Masters of Music in Vocal Pedagogy at The Catholic University of America (anticipated completion in December 2009).  Katie has been an active musician in the Baltimore/DC area since 2005 performing with The Washington Chorus and the National Symphony Orchestra, The City Choir of Washington, Bel Cantanti Opera Company, The Summer Opera Theatre Company, The Washington Savoyards, and at many local churches and venues such as The Kennedy Center, Wolftrap, The Harman Center, and Strathmore Hall.  She is currently an Adjunct Professor of Voice at Trinity Washington University and has been teaching private piano and voice lessons since 2006.
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Elizabeth Overmann

Lyric soprano Elizabeth Overmann completed her Masters of Music in voice performance and pedagogy with honors from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ in the spring of 2011. She also holds a Bachelors of Music from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and currently studies with renowned dramatic soprano Sharon Sweet.  Recent appearances include Lucia di Lammermoor (Lucia), L'elisir D'amore (Adina), Roméo et Juliette (Juliette), Der Schauspieldirektor (Mme. Silberklang). Other appearances include Guilliume Tell Caramoor Bel Canto Institute (2011), Madama Butterfly Opera New Jersey (2011), Proserpina Spoleto Festival USA (2010), The Merry Widow (Dodo), The Medium (Mrs. Nolan), Carmen (Mèrcédes), Così fan tutte (Dorabella), Street Scene (Rose), La Rondine, L’Étoile with Eastman Opera Theater and Tosca with Opera Festival of New Jersey. She has participated in the Caramoor Bel Canto Institute, the Westminster Choir College French Song Festival (2011) and Heine Lieder Festival (2010).  During her time at Westminster, she participated in the Westminster Choir which has been setting the standard for choral excellence for 90 years. Ms. Overmann began her private piano studio in 2003 and began teaching voice in 2006. She is also certified to teach Music Together, an internationally recognized early childhood music education program, and developed and taught the preschool music curriculum for the Stuart Country Day School in Princeton, NJ. She currently maintains an active piano and voice studio with students of all ages and abilities.
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Strings

Leah Beshore Naftalin, Violin and Suzuki Violin

Leah Beshore Naftalin received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Dickinson College and her Master of Music in Violin Performance under Jody Gatwood at Catholic University.  In between degrees, she furthered her pedagogical studies in the Suzuki Method with Martha Shackford and opened Violin Studios in Carlisle and New Cumberland, PA.  She also piloted a Suzuki Program at Harrisburg Academy.  Leah enjoys learning and helping students learn, and hopes to convey to her students through her own love of music the notion that music can enrich their lives in many ways.  Prior and influential teachers include Blanka Bednarz and Pamela deWall.  She loves to travel, particularly for performance opportunities. Her international appearances include a performance with Sinfonietta Polonia in Poznan, Poland, and with a festival orchestra in Catania, Sicily.  She lives in Bethesda with her husband, Dave, daughter Lucy, and their Alaskan malamute, Cruzer.
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Gretchen Heller

Please see bio under Piano Instructors.
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Kela Veshi, Violin and Viola

Kela’s musical explorations began at age seven with formal instruction on violin. By age 15, she had begun playing the viola and has continued to play both instruments ever since. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Fine Arts Institute in Tirana, Albania majoring in Viola. She performs regularly in the Washington DC metro area. Her most recent appearances include performances with the National Conservatory Orchestra of Washington DC, Kenosha Symphony Orchestra of Wisconsin, Evanston Symphony Orchestra and Rockford Symphony Orchestra of Illinois. Kela toured with the National Symphony Orchestra of Albania in Salzburg, Austria and Pescara, Ancona, Rome and Lecce, Italy. She also performed at the Ancient Stadium of Delphi in Athens and Preveza, Greece.

In addition to Musical Expressions, Kela currently teaches at the Hebrew Academy in Rockville, MD, and at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda, MD. Kela lives in Bethesda with her husband and two children.
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Suzuki Violin

Leah Beshore Naftalin

Please see bio under violin instructors.
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Guitar

Paul Wu

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Paul Wu received his master’s degree from the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University, and is also a graduate of the London Royal Academy of Music. Currently a member of the 1 East Guitar Quartet, Paul has also been a member of the New York Guitar Quartet and the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble. These groups perform regularly on the east coast. The 7 East Quartet gives many benefit concerts around Baltimore, and works with local composers to expand the repertoire by commissioning new works. He now maintains a private studio of guitar students in the Baltimore area.
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Erik Sharar

Erik Sharar graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.M. in guitar performance, and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the Peabody Conservatory.  He has taught privately for over seven years, including at Musical Expressions since 2003, and has performed extensively in the United States and Europe for ten years.  He is currently Choir Director at St. Raphael’s Catholic Church in Rockville, MD.
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Woodwinds

Virginia Nanzetta, Flute

Free lance flutist and teacher Virginia Nanzetta received her Master of Music in flute from the University of Illinois and her Bachelor of Music in flute from Converse College.  She has taught as an adjunct professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland, University of Illinois, and Stockton State College (NJ), and enjoys working with students of all ages.  She also currently teaches at the Washington Conservatory of Music.

Ms. Nanzetta has played with the award-winning Kapelle Woodwind Trioand presently plays with the Granby Ensemble and Designer SoundsTrio.  She has enjoyed participating in performances of new works,
especially those by Alec Wilder, Haskell Small, and John Stevens, performing at Strathmore Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, and most recently Merkin Hall.  Two CDs made with American Camerata for New Music and featuring Virginia were nominated
in the first round of Grammy Award nominations.
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Cristina Canning, Flute

Cristina Verderese Canning received her Masters of Music in Flute Performance from the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at The Catholic University of America.  She currently works full-time at CUA’s School of Music as the Assistant to the Dean and Business Manager.  She has attended a masterclass with Trevor Wye.  Her many performances are include a solo performance in an alumni concert at Pakachoag Music School of Greater Worcester, MA, musical productions at the Academy of the Holy Cross, in Kensington, MD, accompaniment in many local churches, and recent performances of newly composed music.  Cristina has had experience teaching students of all ages and levels in the music program at the Global Mission Church Saturday School.  She has also worked with the Global Mission Youth Orchestra as a guest conductor.  She currently manages her own private studio—including some non-major undergraduate students at CUA—in addition to teaching with Musical Expressions.[top of page]

Erich Heckscher, Bassoon

Erich Heckscher was appointed Principal Bassoon of the National Philharmonic Orchestra in November 2009 and will serve as Acting Second Bassoon with the National Symphony Orchestra for the 2011-2012 season. He was formerly Principal Bassoon with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Second Bassoon with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and Houston Ballet Orchestra, and appeared as Guest Principal Bassoon with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in 2000. Other appearances include the Dallas, National, and Charleston Symphony Orchestras, the Atlanta Opera, the Tulsa Opera and the Des Moines Metropolitan Opera. Erich is also Principal Bassoon of the Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, OR, and has participated in festivals in Durango, Sarasota, Breckenridge, Chautauqua and College Park. He has a Bachelor of Music in bassoon from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with K. David Van Hoesen and John Hunt, and a Master of Music in bassoon from Southern Methodist University, where he studied with Wilfred Roberts. Erich has maintained private studios in Dallas, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., and was Adjunct Professor of Bassoon at Texas A&M University Commerce. 
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Drums

Mike Reeves

Bio coming soon.