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Conservatory Leadership

John Reynolds, D.M.A.

Senior Director, Instrumental Music Conservatory

Dr. John Reynolds is a highly sought educator, clinician, and trumpeter. He holds a D.M.A. in Jazz Studies from the USC Thornton School of Music, as well as degrees from San Diego State University (M.M. Jazz Studies) and Point Loma Nazarene University (B.A. Music Education). Dr. Reynolds is an active performer and studio artist, having shared the stage with jazz luminaries such as Jeff Hamilton, John Clayton, Bob Mintzer, George Cables, and many others. Additionally, he frequently performs the San Diego Symphony and other noted classical ensembles throughout California. Dr. Reynolds is a Lotus Trumpets artist. He has won numerous awards, including Outstanding Jazz Alumnus of the Year (SDSU) and Jazz Educator of the Year (So Cal Jazz Society). Dr. Reynolds also serves as a Member-At Large Representative to the NAfME Council for Jazz Education.

Hannah Yi

Coordinator, Pianist Program

hannah.yi@ocsarts.net

Hannah Yi is a distinguished concert pianist, chamber musician, collaborative artist, and piano educator recognized for her versatile musicianship and dedication to music performance and education throughout Southern California. She has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras, performed on nationally recognized radio stations, and collaborated extensively with instrumentalists and vocalists. Ms. Yi currently serves on the faculty at Chapman University and Long Beach City College while maintaining a private piano studio. She is also Vice President of Programming for the Music Teachers' Association of California: Long Beach Branch, where she supports educational programming and performance opportunities for the musical community.

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.