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Faculty & Staff

Dr. Sarkis Baltaian

Director, Instrumental Music Conservatory – Pianist Program, Strings & Orchestra Program

Dr. Sarkis Baltaian has gained an international reputation as a concert pianist, chamber musician, recording artist, and pedagogue. He has been praised by critics for his “beautiful tone and ability to project even the most delicate pianissimos,” and compared to George Gershwin and Oscar Levant for his performance of Gershwin’s Concerto in F. Dr. Baltaian made his Carnegie Hall Debut in 1999 and has performed extensively both as a recitalist and concerto soloist with major orchestras throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Under his dedicated teaching, Dr. Baltaian’s students have won national and international competitions and have matriculated to prestigious institutions such as the Eastman School; Peabody Conservatory; New England Conservatory; Manhattan School of Music; Oberlin Conservatory; Cleveland Institute of Music; USC; Rice University; Cornell University; Pomona College; University of Colorado at Boulder; and the University of California at Los Angeles, Berkeley, and Santa Barbara.

Dr. Baltaian has held full-time professor positions at the Colburn Conservatory of Music and The University of Alabama in Huntsville. He currently serves on the piano faculty of the Pasadena Conservatory of Music and also maintains a private studio in Orange County and Los Angeles.

Sebastian Chang

Instructor

Teaches: Musicianship A, Piano Ensemble A, Chamber Music, Composition, Piano Master Class

sebastian.chang@ocsarts.net

Mr. Sebastian Chang’s first major performance as a piano soloist was of his composition Concertino for Piano and Orchestra with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra at just nine years old. From 2016 to 2018, he was Resident Composer of the Louisville Orchestra, and he currently fulfills the duties of the orchestra’s Auxiliary Pianist.

Mr. Chang is the youngest three-time BMI Student Composer Awards winner in the history of the competition with wins in 2002, 2005, and 2007. He won five American Society of Composer, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Morton Gould Young Composers Awards between 2001 and 2006. He was awarded a $50,000 scholarship as a Davidson Fellow Laureate by the Davidson Institute for Talent Development in 2002.

His Symphony, premiered by the Louisville Orchestra in January 2015, is the subject of “Episode 9: First Symphony” of the Music Makes a City Now PBS documentary cycle. Between Heaven and Earth, in collaboration with Kurdish Baghdad-native visual artist Vian Sora, was premiered by the Louisville Orchestra & Louisville Chamber Choir in February of 2018. Mr. Chang obtained his Bachelor of Music in composition from the Curtis Institute of Music & his Master of Music in composition from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Wenjing Liu

Instructor

Teaches: Teaches: Musicianship B, Piano Ensemble B, Seminar B, Theory

wenjing.liu@ocsarts.net

Ms. Wenjing Liu, a solo performer and chamber musician, has intensely performed throughout the United States, China, and Italy. A scope of her concert engagement expands from prestigious professional concert venues, such as Carnegie Hall, and Steinway Hall, to major academic institute worldwide, such as University of Southern California, California State University-Fullerton, and the University of Tennessee as a guest artist. She performed in various music festivals including Amalfi Coast Music Festival (Italy) and Schlern Music Festival (Italy).

A solo pianist of national and international acclaim, Ms. Liu is a price winner of multiple competitions. Such as American Protégé International Competition in New York City, Asia Teenager Piano Competition in China, American Piano Competition of Yantai China. As a chamber musician, she performed in various groups and venues including Carnegie Hall in New York City and Vὅls Town Hall in Italy. She started to collaborate with saxophonist John Hallberg since 2014, and the duo frequently appears in major concert halls and institutes in United States and China.

Ms. Liu holds a Bachelor of Arts in Piano Performance from Shandong University in China, a Master of Music in Piano Performance from Illinois State University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from University of Iowa.

Kelly Jiyeon Neff

Instructor

Teaches: Piano Master Class 7/8, Chamber Music, Theory

kelly.neff@ocsarts.net

Ms. Kelly Jiyeon Neff is a professional pianist, and first prize and top prize winner of the Wideman International Piano Competition, Piano-Ohio of Cleveland International Piano Competition, Kingsville International Music Competition, San Jose International Piano Competition, the Texas Christian University’s Cliburn Institute Concerto Competition, Seoul Philharmonic Concerto Competition, and Cooper International Piano Competition. Her recitals and orchestral performances have been held in North America, Asia, and Europe. On radio, she has performed for WQXR in New York, WCLV in Cleveland, KDB in Santa Barbara, and KXMS in Joplin.

Ms. Neff attended the renowned Music Academy of the West, PianoTexas International Festival, Banff Centre International Keyboard Festival, and Mannes International Keyboard Institute & Festival. She has studied with artists including Boris Berman, Wha Kyung Byun, Pavlina Dokovska, Jerome Lowenthal, Julian Martin, John Perry, Jerome Rose, Russell Sherman, Támas Ungár, and many others.

Ms. Neff received her bachelor's degree from Oberlin Conservatory and master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Highly influenced by her music mentors, professor Jerome Lowenthal and Haewon Song, she has been a dedicated educator in New York City and Orange County for over ten years. Ms. Neff joined the OCSA Strings & Orchestra faculty in the Fall of 2019 as the first Strings Master Class Collaborative Pianist.

Dr. Hyun Jung Ro

Instructor

Teaches: Piano Sight-Reading 7/8 and 9/10, Piano Seminar 7/8, Piano Seminar A, Theory

Dr. Hyun Jung Ro holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in historical performance practices from Claremont Graduate University. There, she studied fortepiano with Professor Preethi de Silva, piano and toy piano with Nadia Shpachenko, and harpsichord with Robert Zappulla. From 2005 to 2006, she went abroad and continued her professional development in England, including participation in the Oxford International Piano Festival. Pianists she has worked with include John Lill, Alexander Satz, Marios Papadopoulos, Nancy Bricard, Robert Watson, Susan Svrcek, and Dennis Alexander.

As trained in historical performance practice, Dr. Ro presented fortepiano lecture-recital and fortepiano/harpsichord chamber music concerts in collaboration with members of Pacific Symphony and Pomona College Orchestra and completed a research project titled: Rhetorical and Performance Practices of Early Beethoven Piano Sonatas. In addition, Dr. Ro premiered two toy piano compositions: Kalimba for You Piano & CD Playback and 3 Kanons fur 3 Spielzeugklaviere. Since 2014, she has been the founder and music director of Musika Anima in which she performs as a soloist and chamber musician. Dr. Ro currently serves on the faculty of St. John’s Music Conservatory as well as an interim music director at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Pasadena and maintains a private studio in Orange County, CA.

Candice Tardif

Instructor

Teaches: Music History

candice.tardif@ocsarts.net

Ms. Candice Tardif is an alumna of the Instrumental Music Conservatory at Orange County School of the Arts, Class of 2010. During the academic day, she is a full-time literature and composition teacher. Ms. Tardif holds bachelor’s degrees in both English and History from University of Southern California, where she earned high honors for her thesis on World War I literature. She also holds a teaching credential and master’s degree in teaching from the University of California, Irvine.

Füreya Unal

Instructor

Teaches: Piano Master Class

Ms. Füreya Unal was born in Istanbul where she started playing the piano at the age of three. Her formal music education began at five years of age at Istanbul University State Conservatory. In 1996, Ms. Unal earned her bachelor’s degree from Istanbul Conservatory. She has also been awarded two master’s degrees, the first from Istanbul Conservatory and the second from the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main.

During her education, she has studied with Irina Zaritskaya, Mikhail Voskresenski, Anatol Ugorski, and Leontina Margulis. Throughout 1995 and 1996, she studied in Monaco with Hüseyin Sermet at the Monaco Music Academy.

Ms. Unal is a member of faculty at California State University, Fullerton. She has performed in a number of concerts and recitals in Turkey, Germany, Monaco, France, Bulgaria, Portugal, and the United States. She was a recipient of Cultural Exchange Fellowship in 2012 by the Turkish Cultural Foundation to give concerts and master classes in The People’s Republic of China. She is the founder, artistic director, and pianist of the new music ensemble Divan Consort. The group has released their first album, “Refuge” on Albany Records, which was awarded with Gold and Silver Medals by the Global Music Awards.

Advisory Board

Nina Scolnik

Professor, UCI

University of California, Irvine

Pianist Nina Scolnik has concertized in the United States and abroad as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, chamber musician and collaborative pianist.

She has been a guest artist with the American, Angeles, Lydian, and Blaeu String Quartets and has collaborated with international cellists Nathaniel Rosen, Gerhard Mantel and Vagram Saradjian. Recent European venues include performances at the Rudolfinum in Prague with principals of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam and the Palais Auersperg in Vienna as a soloist with the Wiener Residenzorchester. Scolnik has performed and taught at celebrated music festivals in Europe and in the United States including the Schlern International Music Festival in Voels am Schlern, Italy, the Ameropa International Chamber Music Festival in Prague, Czech Republic, Pianofest Austria in Bad Aussee, Austria, the Williams International Piano Festival, Tulane University Keyboard Festival, and the Amherst, New World, and Aspen Music Festivals.

Widely recognized for her master classes, lectures, and work with injured pianists, Ms. Scolnik has presented at music conferences, universities, and festivals in the United States, Canada, and Europe. She served as a faculty member of the Taubman Institute of Piano from 1979 to 2002, and at the Golandsky International Piano Institute at Princeton University in 2004. She currently serves on the piano faculty and as Associate Chair for Performance at the University of California, Irvine, where she has groomed pianists for serious careers as performers and teachers for over 25 years.

Born in Lewiston, Maine, Ms. Scolnik is a graduate of both the Oberlin Conservatory and the Juilliard School of Music. Her teachers have included Edna Golandsky, Dorothy Taubman, Artur Balsam, Joseph Schwartz, Martin Canin, Lenore Engdahl, and Natasha Chances.

Dr. Derek Kealii Polischuk

Director of Piano Pedagogy

Professor of Piano

Michigan State University

Derek Kealii Polischuk is associate professor of piano and director of piano pedagogy at the Michigan State University College of Music. Originally from San Diego, Polischuk studied with Krzysztof Brzuza before attending the University of Southern California, where he received the Doctor of Music Arts degree in Piano Performance with distinction under the tutelage of Daniel Pollack.

An enthusiastic supporter of the education of musicians at every age, ability and background, Polischuk has presented at conferences around the world, including the Music Teachers National Association, the National Group Piano and Pedagogy Conference, the Multidisciplinary Research in Music Pedagogy Conference, the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, the DOCTRID Conference in Ireland, the ABLE Assembly at Berklee College, and at universities and conservatories across China. Polischuk serves on the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy’s Committee for Teaching Students with Special Needs and the Advisory Board of the Orange County School of the Arts Pianist Program. Polischuk is a founder and director of the “Celebrating the Spectrum” Piano Festival for advanced pianists on the Autism Spectrum. Polischuk’s book Transformational Piano Teaching, described by Dr. Alice M. Hammel of James Madison University as “a world of piano pedagogy where anyone and everyone is welcome and included in the art and joy of playing the piano” and Stewart Gordon of the University of Southern California as “a landmark in the field of piano pedagogy” is available from Oxford University Press. At Michigan State University, Polischuk has been the recipient of the Curricular Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Award, and the Teacher-Scholar Award, given in recognition of exceptional skill in teaching.