Meet Us
Staff pianist at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, MTAC San Mateo Board
Co-Founder
Piano Instructor
speaks English & Mandarin
Ke Coco Chen is an active solo and collaborative pianist in the Bay Area. She received her Master Degree and Professional Studies Diploma in Piano Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Prof. Yoshikazu Nagai. She holds the piano performance B.M degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she was under the tutelage of Dr. Weicong Zhang. She received lots of national scholarship awards during her studying time in schools. Upon completion of her studies, she is chosen to serve as a staff pianist in San Francisco Conservatory of Music because of her accomplishments in her major. She accompanied many master classes, department and solo recitals for the instrumental students in the Conservatory. Ms. Chen also gives numerous solo piano and chamber music recitals every year in the San Francisco Bay Area. She worked as an accompanist for the Atlanta Music Academy and Alonzo King Lines Ballet as well. Besides playing, she is passionate about teaching as well. Her students have successfully got into the piano performance program in the conservatory and passed many ABRSM and CM exams in these years. Ms.Chen is a board member of the Music Teachers Association of California in the San Mateo County. Ms.Chen’s article about the composer Gustav Mahler was published in the authentic magazine Music Lovers in the Shanghai.
Music Faculty at San Francisco High School of Arts, MTAC Composition Member
Co-Founder
Piano, Composition, Music Production, and Music theory Instructor
speaks English & Mandarin
Yujing Bai is an active contemporary composer and music educator who was born and raised in Taiyuan, China. She graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and she got her master degree in composition. She holds a Bachelor's degree in music design and production major from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Her works contribute to a variety of instrumental, chamber, film, electronic, vocal and other collaborative directions. She has worked with the Hollywood film composers Roger Neill and Larry Groupe at the Palomar Film Music Workshop. Ms. Bai has been teaching piano, musicianship, composition, and music theory since 2012. Her students have passed the ABRSM exam in both piano and music theory. Ms. Bai is also a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Music Teachers Association of California. Ms. Bai is serving as the music theory, musicianship, and composition teacher at the San Francisco High School of the Arts. She is passionate about teaching music with young kids and she believes music can bring joy and happiness to students. For more composition information at www.yujingbai.com
Guitarist
Guitar, ukulele instructor
Daniel Oda
speaks English
Daniel Oda is a Bay Area musician from Richmond, California. Born into a musical family who’s father was a professional guitarist and composer, playing music has always been a big part of his life since a young age. Beginning with playing guitar with concentrations in blues and rock, he continued to broaden his knowledge by studying guitar in the styles of jazz, classical, and funk as well. He has studied at California State University Sacramento.
He has played in numerous bands and collectives and has spent many years both on stage and in recording studios. Always being enamored with the feeling of playing live music, he has continued musical education at Diablo Valley College and has combined his love of musicianship with his love of passing on knowledge through teaching.
Daniel has ventured into several musical avenues such as recording, composing, performing, and production. Through over 5 years of vocal training under the stewardship of professional singer Courtney Bowles Miller, he has also been able to refine his craft in his passion of singer songwriting. Daniel has experience in teaching students of all ages. And being a firm believer in the act of expression through the arts, he aims to guide aspiring musicians into harnessing their own voice through their instrument.
Pianist
Music Director & Piano Instructor
Tianyu Yan
speaks English & Mandarin
is a pianist who was born in Tianjin, China. She holds an BA degree in piano performance from Tianjin Conservatory of Music, and later got a MM degree and a Performance Certification from Northern Illinois University. She has accompanied many instrumental and vocal students in their recitals as Graduate Assistance at Northern Illinois University and as a piano accompanist in DeKalb High School choir as an accompanist instructor. She has participated in many piano competitions and won many awards in China, Hong Kong and Germany. And during her school years, she attended various international master classes in China and Europe and has been praised by many famous pianists. She also has given many recitals in many cities of different countries. And since 2012, she has taught many different students in China, Germany and the United States. She has a lot of teaching experience and is good at creating a fun classroom atmosphere, let the students learn the piano in a relaxed environment.
Vocal Instructor
Anna Muravitskaya
Mezzo-Soprano
speaks English
Anna Muravitskaya is an opera singer with a unique experience in performance, vocal training, dance and theater. She began her artistic journey as a five year old in ballroom dancing, added piano and later vocal and theatrical studies. Her journey is unique as she took a detour to theater where she explored genres such as theater of the ridiculous and grand guignol. Her personal singing journey has taken her to explore different methods of vocal study ranging from the Garcia method to Marchesi and finally the Melocchi method. She prides herself in finding out everything related to bel canto and the old school of
singing. Anna learned most of her musicianship from her piano teacher with whom she dutifully studied for over fifteen years. Her relationship with piano and dance has helped her understand different aspects of performance, music and art. Currently she plays with other genres such as jazz, folk and tango as a vocal artist. She has started her own project titled Opus Gratia where she puts on concerts for her audience in a more intimate setting in various exciting venues around the wider Bay Area. She enjoys teaching as it gives her a different insight into music. She finds pedagogy to be a therapeutic practice for both herself and the student as they get to explore music and excellence together.
Violinist, Violist
Violin, Viola instructor
James Woodward
speaks English
James Woodward is an up-and-coming musician and a violin and viola instructor from the Bay Area. He is classically trained, including historically informed performance, as well as jazz. He feels that it is especially meaningful to interpret the music based on current historical knowledge, therefore developing a greater appreciation of the composer’s ideas and emotions. As a Bay Area local, he has performed with the Stanford Summer Symphony, Stanford Symphony Orchestra, and the Stanford Philharmonia under the direction of Paul Phillips. He has been featured in the St. Helena Star for his historically informed Vivaldi and solo Bach performance. He received his Bachelor of Science in Music from Pacific Union College with an emphasis in violin and viola. He has studied under Chag-Hee Lee, Symphony San Jose, Jill Cohen, Symphony San Jose, Dr. Rachelle Davis, Pacific Union College, and two-time Grammy Award-Winning jazz violinist Mads Tolling. He is passionate about exploring the sound world of the violin and viola in a traditional means, as well as exploring early music, jazz, and various other styles to express additional sounds and ideas. He strongly feels that music should be an accessible, progress-based and transformative experience for everyone. He believes in a creative and personalized approach, while emphasizing technique, allowing for every student to meet his or her full potential while developing a passion and appreciation for music.
Cellist, Pianist
Cello & Piano Instructor
Zoe Lee
speaks English & Mandarin
Cellist Zoe Lee is a versatile performer, chamber musician, and educator who seeks to connect people through music. As a recipient of the Vincent Constantino Scholarship, Zoe received a Bachelor's degree in Cello Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with French cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau. Zoe began her musical journey by learning piano at the age of four and won awards in solo and chamber competitions in her native Taiwan. She has also participated in renowned music festivals, including Oberstdorfer Musiksommer, Taipei Music Academy Festival, Formosa Chamber Music Festival, and Telegraph ChamberFEAST. As a chamber musician, Zoe has organized and performed in various concerts, including the unique hybrid concert Trio-20 and the string quartet collaboration with a private chef for A Piece A Meal. She has also performed with award-winning artists, such as Ragnar Bohlin and John Adams, and participated in the recording of Nick Platoff's 2022 album, "Limousine of Creative Potential." with members of the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Ballet. Zoe is also an experienced cello and piano teacher, having worked with students of all ages for several years. She serves as an SFCM Pre-College Teaching Artist under the Bridge to Arts & Music (BAM) program, providing tuition-free instrumental instruction for underserved students. Zoe focuses on developing each student's unique strengths and needs while building a strong technical foundation and healthy mindset for their musical journey. She has had the privilege to work and learn from esteemed artists, such as Lynn Harrell, Wen-Sinn Yang, Yovan Markovitch, Yehuda Hanani, Johannes Moser, Astrid Schween, Antonio Lysy, Telegraph Quartet, and Formosa Quartet, among others. By providing a positive and encouraging musical environment, her mission is to inspire students to explore the beautiful sounds deep inside their hearts and share them with others. Zoe is fluent in Mandarin and English.
Piano, Music theory, and Composition Instructor
Rongrong Chen
speaks English, Mandarin & Japanese
Composer, Music Theorist, Pianist
Rongrong Chen is a music educator, contemporary music composer, music theorist and pianist. She received her bachelor's degree in composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2020, and her master's degree with distinction in composition from the University of Oregon in 2023. Teaching music has been an essential part of her academic career. She has tutored music theory and musicianship for three years during her undergraduate career at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and taught introductory piano skills at the University of Oregon for one year. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, English, and Japanese.
Chen is passionate about incorporating music by women composers in her teaching and expanding the default classical music repertoire while connecting theoretical knowledge to the repertoire in every lesson, making music fundamentals relevant to students’ musical lives.
Violin Instructor
Lavinia Chen
speaks English, Mandarin & Cantonese
Lavinia Chen is a professional violinist and passionate music educator who works for the San Francisco Symphony, performing music educational shows to different public elementary schools in San Francisco every morning. Lavinia earned her Master’s degree in violin performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she won competitions to perform solo violin in Vienna and London as the First Prize Winner. In 2021, Lavinia graduated from UCLA with a full scholarship majoring in violin performance, double minoring in Visual & Performing Arts Education (VAPAE) and Musicology. In recent years, she has performed on stages throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Asia.
Playing violin to Lavinia is like telling an exciting story, and she always enjoys teaching so that more students’ inner voices can be heard by music-making. Besides private teaching, Lavinia also teaches after-school programs in K-12 classrooms and at students' homes. She enjoys creating unique experiences for her students while integrating visual arts/crafting into music learning. Known for her cheerful spirit and mature teaching style, Lavinia has become many students’ favorite teacher.
Vocalist
Voice Instructor
Maya Derbise (On Leave)
speaks English & French
Maya Derbise is a vocalist and music educator who specializes in opera and musical theater. She attended the University of California, Santa Cruz where she studied music and voice working closely with Prof. Sheila Willey. She became proficient in music theory and vocal technique, specializing in classical and baroque music. During this time, she performed in several operas across California. Some of her roles included Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Ino in Semele, and Mustardseed in The Fairy Queen. She also performed numerous times in the choral ensemble, UCSC Chamber Singers, under the direction of Prof. Michael McGushin. Maya is fluent in English, Spanish, and French as well as comfortable singing in Italian and German.
Alongside her classical training, Maya has had vast experience with musical theater. Maya won Best Actress in a Musical and Triple Threat Award from the Culver City Academy of Visual and Performing Arts. She discovered her passion for vocal education through her years teaching at Kids On Stage, a Los Angeles-based musical theater company that has appeared on CNN, HBO, and Showtime. She enjoys sharing her love of singing with others and is attentive to each student’s goals. Maya hopes to create a space where students of all ages can embrace their unique voices.
Maya likes to describe singing as creative freedom. She fell in love with Verdi's La Traviata and how a character can channel immense emotion through their voice while balancing proper technique. She believes that the more one works on developing their voice, the more one expands the horizons of self-expression. In this light, the voice can be a direct channel to the heart.