EKS Instructors Are Our Pride

Portuguese pianist Dr. Inês Andrade is an avid and versatile soloist and chamber musician. She has performed across Europe and the United States in venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall (USA), Centro Cultural de Belém (Portugal), Teatro Comunale Luigi Russolo (Italy), and Centre Le Phénix (Switzerland). Recently, she has been a guest artist at the Boston Portuguese Festival, Bay Chamber Concerts, Boston Conservatory New Music Festival, Classical at the Cabot, and CAC Tejo's Autumn Festival.
She was praised for her “excellent technique and elaborate touch” (Diário de Notícias), after her performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Lisbon Sinfonietta Orchestra. As a winner of the 2013 Steinhardt Piano Concerto Competition, Inês performed Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the NYU Symphony Orchestra at the Frederick Loewe Theater (New York). She has also appeared as a soloist with the MPMP Orchestra, the ArtQuest Orchestra, the ESML Symphony Orchestra, and the Lisbon National Conservatory Orchestra.
A passionate chamber musician, Inês is a prizewinner of the Portuguese Young Musicians Prize, in duo with violinist Tamila Kharambura. The duo recently recorded “Quasi una Sonata” by composer António Pinho Vargas, which was released by MPMP in 2017. Inês also founded Duo Pianissimo, with pianist Marta Menezes, to celebrate and disseminate Portuguese music written for two pianos. She collaborates regularly with ensemble ALEA III and is a member of the ensemble Virtuoso Soloists, which was founded in New York City in 2014. Virtuoso Soloists has performed extensively in the United States, Italy, and Portugal. The ensemble recorded an album with music by acclaimed Italian composer Mario Pagotto, which was released by MEP Italia in January 2018.
Inês Andrade holds a Bachelor of Music and Master’s degrees in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (Lisbon, Portugal), under the guidance of Miguel Henriques. During her studies in Lisbon, she was named the Most Outstanding Student of the Year in 2008 and 2010. She moved to the United States in 2011 and continued her musical studies at New York University, where she studied with José Mendez and Marilyn Nonken.
Inês graduated last May with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University, under the tutelage of Pavel Nersessian (piano) and David Kopp (music theory). She was distinguished by the Boston University Women’s Council and invited to join the National Music Honor Society Pi Kappa Lambda. Her dissertation project, “Tradition and Innovation in the Piano Works of Portuguese Composer António Fragoso,” won a Graduate Arts Research Grant from the BU Arts Initiative.
Inês has taught piano, music theory, and ear training at New York University, Boston University, Sharon Music Academy, as well as in music conservatories in Portugal. She is currently on the faculty at Kingsley Montessori School and is the artistic director of the Bendada Music Festival. Her upcoming projects include a commercial recording of António Fragoso’s complete chamber music works and a tour of China in Summer 2019.

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.

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.

Ashley Jee is the current Studio Manager of EKS Music School. She was a past piano student of Ellyses Kuan for five years. Currently, she is attending Suffolk University and majoring in Business and minoring in Communications. She worked as a certified teacher and Administrative Manager at a non-profit afterschool program called GBCCS during her high school years. Her hobbies are watching Japanese animation, playing piano versions of anime songs, and reading non-fiction books.