Join EKS Music School in Quincy for summer 2023
(617) 770-7677 Quincy, MA
Ellyses Kuan (Music Director, Senior Piano Faculty)
Ms. Ellyses Kuan is a native Hong Kong pianist who started taking piano lessons at the age of three.In addition to the 2017 & 2018 Steinway & Sons Top Teacher Awards, she is also named the Teacher of the Year 2019-2020 by the Massachusetts Music Teacher Association. After she graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Ellyses received a full scholarship for her Master Degree, studying Piano Performance with Barry Snyder at the Eastman School of Music. She was selected to represent Hong Kong and attended the International Kirishima Music Festival in Japan. Among her other major teachers and mentors are Dr. Siu-Wan Chair Fang and Paul Odette. She also performed in masterclasses by John Perry, Alan Chow, Dang Thai Son, Malcolm Bilson and Jane McGrath. Ellyses is enthusiastic about chamber music and collaborates with artists from all over the world. She also performs as a soloist often. She is passionate about Baroque and Classical Performance Practices and she strives to bring authentic music interpretation to her audiences. She also performed at the prestigious EperialHal at the Schloss Esterhazy in Austria. She is also the co-founder of the Duo Amie, a cello and piano duo in Greater Boston area.
Ms. Kuan also organizes and hosts house concerts at the Alida House Concert Series in the South Shore area. Her goal is to build a community, promote performing arts awareness, and support local young musicians through advocacy, inspiration and performances. She has recently set up a music scholarship fund at her school to support quality music programs in the area. In 2014, Ellyses was invited by the Boston GuitarFest Roundtable Panel to speak about Entrepreneurship and Making a Career in Music Work. Her music school was also featured in the Boston Globe the same year.
Ellyses is currently the Immediate President of the Massachusetts Music Teacher Association .
Rosemarie Gentile (Senior Piano Faculty)
Rosemarie Gentile is an energetic and dedicated music teacher and pianist with extensive experience teaching students of all ages and levels in both private and school settings. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the Eastman School of Music, and a Master of Music in Music Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Mrs. Gentile has maintained a private piano studio throughout her career of more than 30 years, and worked with children and adults at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels. For the past 16 years, she served as a full-time middle and high school music teacher at the Sturgis Charter Public School in Hyannis, and Notre Dame Academy in Hingham. In these positions she instructed beginning through advanced music classes and ensembles including music appreciation, class piano, beginning music theory, AP Music, International Baccalaureate Music, and directed choral and instrumental ensembles. In addition, she loves musicals and has served as the music director and pianist for annual full-scale musicals for her school positions as well as for community theaters. Mrs. Gentile enjoys teaching in a variety of educational settings with students of different ages and abilities, and appreciates the opportunity to offer them experiences with music that are suited to their particular strengths and musical interests.
Dr. Raley Beggs (Senior Guitar Faculty)
Guitarist Dr. Raley Beggs is an active concert performer and pedagogue. He performs solo and chamber works for the classical guitar and seeks to emphasize the instrument’s versatility and collaborative capability. As an educator Raley Beggs served as faculty at Bridgewater State University and Middlesex Community College having students earn degrees in music as well as gaining entrance into advanced programs of study including Berklee College of Music in Boston. Raley is the founding guitarist at EKS Music School where his students have gone on to win international awards with The Royal Conservatory of Music and perform in concert venues that include Carnegie Hall in New York City. Raley also served as Competition Director for the prestigious annual Boston Guitarfest, where he taught private lessons, coached ensembles, and performed. Established through the Community Performances and Partnerships Program at New England Conservatory, Raley’s focus on community outreach led him to share concert programs all over the New England area for community centers, schools, places of worship, and assisted living facilities. Raley taught the Malden YMCA and later served as the first guitar instructor for the Boston-based guitar classes at Fiorentino Community Center with The Kithara Project. Raley Beggs received his Bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and Master’s from New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with the esteemed Eliot Fisk. He is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts as a teaching assistant under profound guitarist and pedagogue Bruce Holzman. Raley is also an established singer-songwriter, performs weekly, and competes in endurance athletics. Mr. Raley is returning to EKS after taking a year off settling down in his doctorate study in Florida. Welcome back, Mr. Raley!
Lucas Barry (Saxophone Faculty)
Originally from Washington State, Lucas Barry began his musical studies with the saxophone at age 10. He graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Music (Performance) from Whitman College, a private liberal-arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. While a student at Whitman, Mr. Barry played with the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra and won the school’s concerto competition. He spent a year after graduation hosting a saxophone studio in Spokane, WA before moving to Boston to study saxophone under Kenneth Radnofsky at New England Conservatory. While at NEC, he performed for several masterclasses and won the NEC Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition, giving him the opportunity to perform Jacques Ibert’s “Concertino da Camera” with the Chamber Orchestra in NEC’s Jordan Hall. After having graduated from NEC in 2019 with an M.M. in Saxophone Performance, Mr. Barry currently works as a freelance musician and educator in the Boston area. Along with teaching woodwinds at EKS Music School, he is the Woodwind Specialist (flute, clarinet, saxophone) at Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood, MA and works as a Saxophone Faculty at Camp Encore/Coda in Sweden, Maine during the summer. Mr. Barry will be teaching Saxophone, Flute and Clarinet.
Susan Bill (Violin, Viola, Cello Faculty)
Susan Bill, is a New England native. She holds a bachelor's degree in education and a Master's degree in performance from the Boston Conservatory. As a violist she has been an active free-lancer in the Boston area, playing with such groups as the Cape Cod Symphony, New Hampshire Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Central Mass. Symphony, etc. She has taught at Quincy Catholic Academy and in the Brookline and Cambridge school systems and currently teaches in Quincy's public school string program. She is the founder and conductor of the Atlantic Youth Orchestra in Quincy and coaches the Boston City-Wide String Orchestra in Roxbury. She is also a keyboard artist and singer and is the organist/choir director at Emmanuel Episcopal in Braintree. Ms. Bill will be offering violin, viola and cello lessons at EKS Music School.
Jackson Carruthers ( Piano Faculty)
A native of Canal Fulton, Ohio, Jackson Carruthers is a musician of wide-ranging endeavors. His
musical interests include the music of American pianist-composers, Sacred Harp singing, the music of
Franz Liszt, and ragtime and stride piano. Carruthers has performed frequently as a classical soloist,
collaborative pianist, and traditional jazz musician. He previously served on the faculty of the
University of Akron and taught privately in the Northeast Ohio area. In his pedagogy, he aims to
incorporate improvisation, practical application of music theory, and ear training alongside classical
repertoire and healthy technique. Carruthers is currently a graduate student at Boston University and
holds the degrees of Master of Music in Piano Performance from Bowling Green State University and
Bachelor of Arts in Music summa cum laude from the University of Akron.
Ceili Connors (Guitar Faculty)
Céili Connors is a Boston based performer, teacher, and artistic administrator. She received her Masters degree in classical guitar performance at the New England Conservatory of Music under the primary instruction of Eliot Fisk and Jerome Mouffe and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Rhode Island. As a Rhode Island native, she holds a faculty position at the Community College of Rhode Island while maintaining a private studio in Boston, as well as the New England Conservatory Preparatory School.
Ni Dong (Classical Piano Faculty)
As a pianist who is pursuing passionate and insightful playing, Ni Dong has performed in the U.S. and China as a symphonic pianist, recitalist, and collaborative artist. Also, Ni Dong is a piano teacher in the U.S. and China.
Ni played at venues like the Ohio Wesleyan University, Brooklyn Music School in New York City, Shanghai Library in China, and Shanghai Yujian Art Museum in China as a soloist. She worked on a lot of classical pieces with Ohio Wesleyan University’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble during her undergraduate years. And she worked with vocalists and other instrumentalists at Ohio Wesleyan University and Longy School of Music of Bard College. Also, she played with the Asbury United Methodist Church Choir in Delaware, OH, and Hill Memorial Baptist Church in Allston, MA.
As a piano teacher, Ni has a lot of students in the U.S. and China. She combined piano technique skills, music theory, and musical ideas from these two varieties of teaching systems to own a teaching method for herself. She was taught at the Brooklyn Music School in New York City and the Parsons Music School in Shanghai. Her teaching attitude and enthusiasm are greatly appreciated by her students and their parents. Together with her students, she has had the joy of teaching a wide range of students from age four to fifty-five. Her students in China had participated in many piano competitions and one of the students got a grade of “excellent” in the highest Shanghai piano grade examination. With her students, they study the diverse repertoires of composers, from Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Clementi, to Chopin, Liszt, Sakamoto, and Chinese composers.
A native of China, Ni started playing at the age of four, and soon after, garnered multiple awards and honors in China. She came to the U.S. to study in 2016. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree at Ohio Wesleyan University, OH with Dr. Mahamuti Gulimina and Dr. Frank Chiou in 2020 and her Master of Music degree at Longy School of Music of Bard College, MA with Renana Gutman in 2023. Ni horned in the Senior Music Performance Award and the Pi Kappa Lambda Award during her undergraduate years. She is a diligent pianist and was honored with Agnes Fowler Collegiate Scholarship in 2019.
Seth Hamlin (Brass Faculty) - Online Only
Seth Hamlin has been teaching group and private students for more than 30 years on trombone, tuba, trumpet, euphonium, and French Horn. Students of Mr. Hamlin range in age from elementary school to adults and perform in groups such as the Massachusetts Youth Wind Ensemble, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and Northeast District ensembles. Former students have gone on to play professionally in orchestras and shows all over the country. There is always something to learn about the art of playing a brass instrument--be it Classical or Jazz--and have fun in the process. Mr. Hamlin is on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Boston. the St. Marks School in Southborough and Arlington Public Schools.
Sarah Newcomb (Violin Faculty)
Sarah Newcomb has played the violin for most of her life.and enjoys playing many types of music. She has played in the Arabic Music Ensemble at Harvard University, studied the violin in Helsinki, Finland and traveled to visit music schools in Budapest, Hungary. She is an experienced teacher of English as a Foreign Language, and is most recently finishing a second B.A. majoring in music.
JENNIFER PEARL (Voice Faculty, EKS/RCM Coordinator)
Jennifer Ann Pearl has been teaching students of all ages for the last eighteen years, in private as well as in a choral setting. Her unique background includes classical vocal studies with an emphasis in the Italian bel canto method and a study and performance of the African-American Spiritual, both as a choral conductor and soloist. Her work as a young singer in both singing in and observing master classes with late Bass-baritone, William Warfield and Metropolitan opera vocal coach, Sylvia Olden Lee, shaped her approach to music as being "between the notes" and derived from the poetry/text of the song. Jen is beginning her third year on the voice faculty at EKS and is the founder and conductor of the Quincy-based Schiller Boston-Area Community Chorus. She frequently runs free choral and vocal workshops in Dorchester at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, to teach the congregants and members of the community to sing. As a performer, Jen sings in concert venues and various churches in the Boston-area. She has performed Russian, Italian, and Yiddish repertoire at Harvard University for concerts sponsored by the Harvard Chinese Students and Scholars Association. She also sings with Big Smile Entertainment and the Very Merry Dickens Carolers. As a conductor and singer, she has performed at such venues as the Cathedral of the Holy Cross (Boston), Carnegie Hall (NYC), St. Mary's Episcopal Church (Dorchester), and Riverside Church (NYC). She has a passion for singing Yiddish folk songs, German Lieder, and African American Spirituals. She earned her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance in 2001 where she studied with Metropolitan Opera Baritone, Timothy Noble. Following her college studies, she traveled to Italy to train and perform in master classes with Verdi soprano, Antonella Banaudi. She is an active member of National Association of Teachers of Singing and the Greater Boston Choral Consortium. Ms. Jenn's student has been invited to Carnegie Hall for performance.
Vinh Pham, (Classical Piano Faculty)
Originally from Vietnam, Vinh Pham received his Bachelor Degree in Piano Performance and a Teaching Artist Certificate from the prestigious Longy School of Music of Bard College in 2015. There, he studied with the late great pianist and teacher Ludmilla Lifson, Piano Pedagogy with Esther Ning Yau, Chamber Music with Carol Mastrodomenico, Mihail Jojatu, Jane Struss, Marco Granados, and multiple masterclasses with Wayman Chin, Hugh Hinton and Peter Serkin. In 2018, he completed his Master of Music studies with the phenomenal pianist and teacher Spencer Myer.
An experienced accompanist and soloist who has performed in multiple recitals, showcases, and chamber concerts in the Boston area, in 2016 he took on the role of Interim Music Director at the historic First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Medfield. Afterwards, as part of his assistantship for the Masters of Music degree at Longy, he continued to work with the Saint Peter School choir in Cambridge, providing musical accompaniment and solo performances for weekly and Holiday Services.
Vinh has taught both when he was in Vietnam, and non-piano majors at Longy. He currently maintains active teaching roles in many different Massachusetts communities, such as Sharon, Westwood, Norwood, Canton, Cambridge, Melrose. He is thrilled in 2022 to start playing an active teaching role in the charming Quincy community as well!
Fred Springer (Guitar Faculty)
Fred Springer is an artist dedicated to sharing music and art with the world through performance, outreach, education, and online content. Having performed formal and outreach concerts on three different continents in countries including the United States, Argentina, Switzerland, and Canada, Fred has developed a compelling way to share his passion for the classical guitar with audiences across different cultures. He has been awarded top prizes in international solo guitar, ensemble, and mixed instrument competitions. He earned a Bachelor of Music in Classical Guitar Performance from the University of Texas at Austin, where he also completed a minor in Art History. He went on to earn a Master of Music in Classical Guitar Performance from Columbus State University, where he served as a graduate assistant in the Schwob School of Music. In addition, Fred arranges and transcribes music for guitar and has a passion for film and visual art.