Piano

Cynthia Caggiano holds a Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music and a Bachelor of Music from the Boston Conservatory of Music. She has also studied at The Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, and Il Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Her teachers include Murray Perahia, Claude Frank, Artur Balsam, Lilian Kallir, Jeananne Dowis, Guido Agosti, Vincenzo Vitale, Joseph Seiger, Maria Bono, John Goldmark, and others.

Ms. Caggiano has participated in the Aspen Summer Music Festival, the Waterloo Summer Chamber Music Festival, the Meadow Brook Summer Music Festival, and the Vacanze Musicale in Venice. She has also served on the faculties of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, the Diller-Quaille School of Music, the Long Island School of Music and Art, the Bronx House Music School, the Bronx School of Music, and the USDAN Summer Music Festival. In addition, she has taught at the Marymount School of New York, the Hebrew Arts School, the Hackley School, and the Cathedral School in New York City.

As an accompanist, Ms. Caggiano has collaborated in the studios of such luminaries as Eleanor Steber, Lillian Fuchs, Dorothy Delay, Paul Doktor, Lois Wann, John McCollum, Gabor Carelli, Ellen Faull, and others. She has also given solo recitals throughout the United States and abroad.

A passionate classic pianist, Kanako Koyama performs throughout the United States – as well as in her native country of Japan – as a soloist, accompanist, and chamber musician. Her venues include the Carnegie Hall in New York, Steinway Hall in New York, Yamaha Salon in New York, Steinway Salon in Tokyo, Liszt Museum in Weimar, Hochshule fur Musik und Theater in Leipzig etc. Given the depth of insight in her interpretation and the rich color and expression that she commands, Kanako Koyama is highly acclaimed for her artistry, as evidenced by numerous international awards and scholarships that have been bestowed upon her. Kanako Koyama made her New York debut recital at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 2009, as a recipient of the Artist International Award and the Special Presentation Winner’s Series Performance that ensued. Kanako Koyama received both her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Dr. Marc Silverman.

Kanako Koyama is also known for her passion for teaching. She has worked with hundreds of students who are from many different countries, and many of her students appreciate music and succeed in recitals, auditions, and competitions etc. She has also experienced in helping students for Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM), Royal Conservatory Music Development Program (RCM), and New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA). Kanako Koyama received several awards in Excellence in Music Teaching in New York.

Ed Baker has been active on the New York music scene for many years as a composer, arranger, producer, keyboardist, and educator. His compositions have been featured in films, television, and theatre. One of his featured songs in the Rysher Entertainment film, “Let It Be Me”, has been recorded by artists for EMI and Sony/BMG. As a producer, arranger and keyboardist he has worked on jingles, recordings, and documentaries. Among them is the closing theme for Spike Lee’s “4 little girls,” numerous projects with Lucy Simon, and recording the “Stranger Than Fiction” CD with Oscar Hijuelos. He has been the musical director for several Off-Broadway productions, performed in many clubs around NYC and is currently performing the pre-show at the Signature Theatre in Times Square. Ed is an educator who teaches privately and who was a faculty member of the Guitar Study Center/New School University for over 20 years. In addition to teaching and performing, Ed records and produces sessions for numerous artists in his studio. He is the author of “Blues Riffs for Piano” (Hal Leonard, publisher) for which he also recorded the CD. Currently, he is a member of the group, “The Transponders,” which consists of top session musicians/composers/songwriters from the United Kingdom and Los Angeles. The group composes and records music in a wide range of genres for several international music production houses.

David Tsang has had a varied career in music in both piano performance and composition. As a pianist with a special interest in contemporary music, he has performed works by Toru Takemitsu, Chou Wen-Chung, John Harbison, and Samuel Adler, among others. He has performed at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Ethical Society of Philadelphia, and Swarthmore College, and has taught piano privately for well over two decades. Mr. Tsang’s teachers include Boris Berman, Evelyne Crochet, and Edith Stearn.

As a composer, Mr. Tsang has garnered such honors as the ASCAP Award and the Malloy Miller Prize. He has served as a fellow at the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, and the First International Conference on Chinese Music in Boston. His composition teachers include Chou Wen-Chung, George Crumb, and David del Tredici. In addition, Mr. Tsang has extensive experience as a choir director and church pianist. Since 1996, he has been the assistant music director of the Early Music Series at St. Peter’s Church in New York City.

Olga Vinokur’s performance career as a soloist and chamber musician has taken her across North America, Israel, Russia, France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal. She was the featured performer at the Young Artist Festival in Russia and the “Music in Galilee” Radio Music Festival of Israel and has also performed at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Merkin Hall. Dr. Vinokur participated in Tel-Hai International Piano Festival, where she was awarded a prize in honor of Ada Caspi. Her performances have been broadcast live on the Israeli “Voice of Music” radio station and Russian National Public Radio.

Dr. Vinokur is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including First Prize in the Prokofiev Piano COmpetition and major prizes in the Torrefranka International Piano Competition, the Koussevitzky Piano Competition, and the Rubin Academy Competition. She is an annual scholarship recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.

Dr. Vinokur received her Bachelor’s Degree and Artist’s Diploma with honors from the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel-Aviv University under the tutelage of Victor Derevianko and Natasha Tadson. She went on to earn her Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the Manhattan School of Music under Solomon Mikowsky.

New York native, Pierre Piscitelli has been performing in his hometown, as well as abroad since his early teenage years. Initially trained as a classical pianist, he began to study jazz during his youth and also studied the guitar with Ethan Mann (CMEC faculty). Throughout the years, Pierre has had the chance to study with greats such as Gil Goldstein, Andy Milne, Billy Drewes, Edmund Niemann, Jon Vercesi and Wayne Krantz. He developed an interest for arranging while earning his B.M. at NYU Steinhardt and frequently arranges for large ensembles and big bands. Pierre is a member of and NYC based band called The Bailen Brothers. Together the group has toured all across the U.S. and Europe since 2010. Pierre is also on the faculty of the Hoff Barthelson Music School in Scarsdale, NY.

Rikako Asanuma is a private piano instructor.  Rikako has attended the Manhattan School of Music in NY earning a Master of Music in Piano Performance and the Musashino Academia Musicae in Tokyo, Japan earning a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance. Rikako has been a music-based educated for almost three decades. Rikako has vast experience as an accompanist for a variety of companies including professional choirs, symphonies, and independent projects.

In addition, Rikako has had solo recital performances at Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Bishopsgate Hall in London, UK, Glinka Choir College Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Iwate Prefectural Hall, Morioka, Japan.

Giocille Shaw enjoys bringing authentic musical experiences to young musicians, through piano study.  As an active music educator in the New York area,  she is eager for her students to develop a deep appreciation and understanding of all the attributes music has to offer.  We are all born vocalists, instinctively using our voices to communicate as infants.  As instrumentalists, we are forever emulating the contour of our vocal line as we bring melodies to life.  By first experiencing musical ideas in the whole body through singing, movement and their uses of energy, we connect these experiences to our instrumental study. While this can come quite naturally to young children, it requires continual fostering as we grow through adolescence and into adulthood. A firm believer in training the eyes, ears and hands and in so, also training the heart, her Kodály background allows for full engagement in piano study, including sight singing, improvisation, composition, and performance.

Ellie Pruneau is a pianist, composer, and educator based in New York. As an educator, she strongly believes in developing fundamental technique and giving students the opportunity to play the music that speaks to them. Her musical style values the importance of combining many genres including classical, jazz, video game, and indie rock. Pruneau’s compositional work earned her a place at the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead workshop in 2019, and the 2022 Alumni Commission for the Indiana University Jazz Department. Her accompaniment on Amanda Gardier’s album Flyover Country (2019) was described as “percussive and harmonically sophisticated” by Downbeat Magazine.

Jonathan Faiman holds a doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music (MSM), where he studied piano with Leon Fleisher and Veda Kaplinsky and composition with Nils Vigeland. He is a member of the Locrian Chamber Players and is a renowned piano accompanist in the New-York metropolitan area. Jonathan teaches chorus, general music, and drama for the Irvington School district. He believes in the power of music to inspire creativity and make connections.