Piano

Matthew Wong attended McMaster University for Music and obtained his Bachelor of Arts (Music). While at the university, he studied under the tutelage of Dr. Pamela Van Weelden. After graduation, Matthew continues to study music under the guidance of George McElroy and improve his piano skills. Using his knowledge from his undergraduate degree and experience with McMaster University Choir, he becomes the chairperson of the Ontario Cross-Cultural Music Society Choir.

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Website: MattMusic.Me

Joanne Chou operates a private music studio in North York, Ontario. Her students have performed well in piano auditions, evaluations, music festivals, recitals, and examinations and have auditioned successfully at the Claude Watson School for the Arts in Toronto. Ms. Chou began her piano education in Taiwan with I-Man Wu, with choral training under Chuan-Shen Lu. She continued her piano studies at The Royal Conservatory with Pauline Leung, George McElroy, John Bailey, Boris, and Inna Zarankin, taking theoretical subjects with Gordon McKinnon, David Snable, and Joe Ringhofer, and Alexander Rapoport. Joanne has conducted piano auditions for Euromusic Marketing and ORMTA.

Through Euromusic she performs regularly for adult performance classes and acts as an accompanist for student concerto performances.

Joanne Chou is a center representative for Scarborough South Centre and a piano consultant for Euromusic Marketing Inc. She has served as PR for the Markham Music Festival.

Ms. Marina Simonian is originally from Yerevan, Amernia, where she began her extensive career as a musician. She graduated from the R. Melikyan Music College with honours and later graduated with an MA, with Honours and a triple specialization as a Piano Teacher, Accompanist, and Chamber Orchestra Soloist from the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan. She held a position as Piano Teacher and Lecturer at Tigranyan Music School earning the prestigious title of "Promising New Teacher" serveral times early on in her career. She served as a Piano Professor and Accompanist at the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, where she also prepared and accompanied students for examinations, concerts, and National-level Competitions for over a decade, working with renowned professors' students like cellist Prof. Gernoti Talalyan.

Ms. Simonian's has been teaching piano students of all ages and levels for over thirty years. Many of her students have made great achievements in RCM exams and are recipients of numerous awards from local festivals such as the Markham Music Festival, Yip's Music Festival,  NCM Festival, the Kiwanis Festival, and others. Ms. Simonian also adjudicates music festivals for many years in Canada and is a longstanding member of the Ontario Registered music Teachers' Association.

Michael Tai holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance with distinction from Queen's University, a Master of Arts in Music Theory from the University of Toronto, and both the ARCT and LRCM Piano Performance Diplomas from the Royal Conservatory of Music. He was privileged to have studied the piano with George McElroy for many years, as well as with Dr. Ireneus Zuk during his time at Queen's University. Michael has taught in various schools and music institutes since the year 2012, and has also been teaching privately in his home studio during recent years.
Aside from being classically trained, Michael shares his music as a Cover Artist/Arranger/Composer/Improviser on YouTube and multiple Social Media platforms. He specializes in arranging piano (sometimes guitar and drum) covers for a wide variety of genres including Video Game Music, Anime Soundtracks, Film Scores, Metal, and Pop. Since 2011, he has posted over 500 videos of music content, reached over 80k subscribers on YouTube, has an average of 150k monthly listeners on Spotify, recorded over 60 piano solo improvisations, and has written/published piano sheet music for over 200 of his own arrangements on Musicnotes.
Michael is an advocate on spreading the love and passion for music in his role as a music teacher. His compassionate and sensitive demeanour PLUS his deep interests in both Classical and Pop Culture genres help to bring a special sense of connection into his lessons, which he believes can greatly contribute to the growth of the student as both a developing musician and as an individual.