Bio: Studying with Les Downs, after many years of not playing piano.
Email: reynolds.barbara@gmail.com
Phone: 828-768-0537
Address: Asheville
Bio: After completing a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the University of North Texas and a master’s degree in piano performance from Texas Christian University, Cynthia received a bachelor of science in nursing. In Texas, she performed chamber music and with orchestra. Cynthia was a contestant in two of the Cliburn International Piano Competitions for Outstanding Amateurs and was a semifinalist in the Rocky Mountain Amateur Piano Competition. She also studied and performed in Spain.
Since moving to North Carolina in 2006, she has given house concerts and performances in retirement homes, country clubs and restaurants. She also has done benefits for the Hendersonville and Asheville Symphonies.
Cynthia recently joined Sue Baker, flutest, to form the Baker Riley Duo. They perform classical and jazz and are available for private parties and local venues.
Performance Styles: Classical, Jazz
Email: cynthiarileypianist@gmail.com
Website: https://www.youtube.com/@cynthiariley4033
Phone: 828-447-8886
Address: Lake Lure
Bio: 1958 B Music Ed degree with piano/organ/voice emphasis. 1968-1971 elementary school music, La France, SC. 1971-1979 private piano in home. 1979-2014 private piano, downtown studio. 2014-present private piano in home
Email: annerogers@gmail.com
Phone: 828-275-1836
Address: Asheville
Bio: Michael Ruiz is Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics and Astronomy, UNC Asheville, where he taught from 1978 to 2021 and was Department Chair from 1980 to 2000. He is a theoretical physicist (Ph.D., University of Maryland), a pianist, composer, and web developer. He studied classical piano with Stewart Gordon and jazz with Ron Eilliston at Maryland in the 1970s. His three piano concertos for his children have been performed by them as soloists with the Winston-Salem Symphony. His innovative work with online e-books was featured as a top story in science and technology on CNN in 2002.
Email: mjtruiz@gmail.com
Website: www.doctorphys.com
Address: Asheville
Bio: Intermediate adult player.
Email: ashevillesuerussell@gmail.com
Phone: 828-778-7747
Address: Asheville
Bio: Teaches at Piano Lab in Mills River. I have graduates from a music school in Minsk Belarus. During my college years in the US I have taken lessons from Dr. Hwa-Jin Kim at UNCA. I have taught piano for 18 years, beginner through advanced levels.
Email: elena1apc@yahoo.com
Phone: (863) 398-1988
Teaching Locations: Piano Lab, Mills River, NC
Offering Piano Lessons for: Beginners through Advanced
Teaching Styles: Classical
Address: Mills River
Bio: I have been teaching in the Hickory area for 45 years and teach almost exclusively on the Advanced Level. My students have won major prizes in state and national events. I am very active in the NC Federation of Music Clubs and have held numerous offices for the organization.
Email: robertrichard@centurylink.net
Phone: 828-962-2269
Studio/Store Location, Serving: Hickory, NC
Offering Piano Lessons for: Advanced
Address: Hickory
Bio: Susie Shaw teaches piano to ages 4 and up in the West Asheville area. She holds the Master of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees in piano performance from the University of Georgia. She is organist at Grace Baptist Church.
Email: srwshaw@gmail.com
Phone: 828-337-2094
Studio/Store Location, Serving: Asheville
Offering Piano Lessons for: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Young Children, Elementary, Middle/High School, Adults
Teaching Styles: Classical
Address: Asheville
Bio: Composer & pianist Nathan Shirley has received over half a dozen national and international awards for his solo, chamber and orchestral compositions since age 21. He is heavily self-taught, but as a teenager was mentored in composition by Olga Harris, the last student of Khachaturian. Mr. Shirley's music has been performed in over a dozen countries around the world. He lives in Western North Carolina with his wife and children.
Email: music@nathanshirley.com
Phone: 828.659.8737
Website: www.NathanShirley.com
Offering Other Music Lessons for: Composition
Address: Marion
Bio: Keyboardist/composer Richard Shulman creates music as a positive influence for himself, audiences and society. -- Richard has recorded 28 of his own albums and collaborated on dozens more. Trained in the classical and jazz fields, he has developed a heartfelt language in these genres while focussing much of his output on music for meditation, healing and inspiration. Shulman has performed at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the UN, and numerous venues in North America and Europe. Shulman has composed for jazz groups, chamber ensembles, choir, and symphony orchestra and creates Musical Soul Portrait recordings for individuals, couples and groups.
Read the full bio at https://richheartmusic.com/about/richard-shulman
Email: richheartmusic@frontier.com
Phone: 828-658-9604
Website: https://richheartmusic.com
Studio/Store Location, Serving: Weaverville
Offering Piano Lessons for: Intermediate, Advanced, College, Adults
Teaching Styles: Classical, Jazz
Offering Other Music Lessons for: Theory, Composition
Other Music Related Services: Musical Soul Portraits, Jazz performances, composing, arranging, recording
Address: Asheville
Email: ohthegirl@earthlink.net
Address: Asheville
Bio: I'm a retired amateur who studied piano for many years in school. I haven't kept up my skills as much as I would have liked over the years, but recently started playing more seriously again. I enjoy many types of music -- classical, jazz, old standards, show tunes, and more.
Phone: 202-256-0225
Email: masmithcae@gmail.com
Address: Asheville
Bio: Wayne Smith, DMA is a retired solo pianist, accompanist, teacher and church organist, having moved to Asheville in 2016 from a long musical career in Kansas City, MO. With the AAPF, Dr. Smith is a board member and a frequently heard pianist on Benefit Concerts and Performance Group gatherings. He is active as a substitute organist/pianist for many churches in Asheville and surrounding towns.
Email: owaynesmith@att.net
Phone: 816-522-5317
Performers’ Occasions: Classical Solo Pianist, Church Musician
Address: Swannanoa
Bio: I am a jazz aficionado.
Email: halsouthster@gmail.com
Bio: Eunice Wonderly Stackhouse holds piano performance degrees from the University of Kansas (D.M.A.) and Indiana University (M.M.) and a B.M.E. degree from Grace College (IN). She was elected to lifetime membership in Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society by the Indiana University chapter. Her career began in Indianapolis as an independent piano instructor, where for 13 years she taught 30-45 students. Prior to her move to NC, she taught at several colleges in adjunct or FT sabbatical replacement position;: including the University of Indianapolis, Tabor & Bethel Colleges (KS), Grove City College (PA), and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has been active in various music organizations and served for several years as a state officer for NCMTA. She has performed extensively in solo and chamber recital settings, including solo recitals recorded and broadcast by WQED Pittsburgh and Radio Kansas. Her article on Louise Talma’s Soundshots was published by Clavier in November 2002, and she edited the first publication of Talma’s Three Bagatelles in 2003 for Hildegard Publishing Co. As Professor of Music at Montreat College, she taught all of the Piano, Music Theory, and Keyboard Pedagogy courses there from 1996-2019. She now continues to teach piano privately in Black Mountain, to adjudicate piano competitions and festivals, and to perform in various settings.
Email: eunice.w.stackhouse@outlook.com
Phone: (828) 669-5479
Website: https://ews-piano-studio.com/
Studio/Store Location, Serving: Black Mountain
Offering Piano Lessons for: Beginning through Advanced
Specialties: Classical, Sacred, Piano Pedagogy, Theory
Address: Black Mountain
Bio: When I play on my old Baldwin Baby Grant (beside open windows) birds come to sing! They particularly sing along with Debussy, Ravel. Mozart and Bach! Thinking about closed windows (due to air conditioning or seasonal changes) I thought of the Asheville Piano From, which I have never joined, tho' I've played piano for 75 year!. I'd like to join the Amateur Piainists Monthly Meeting group and offer my home for meeting.
Email: mms@mhu.edu
Phone: 828-254-0943
Address: Asheville
Bio: Pianist, Composer and “Steinway Artist,” Michael Jefry Stevens is currently on the music faculty of ETSU and the Asheville Music School. He has released over 100 cds and has performed and/or recorded extensively with many of the top names in Jazz, including Dave Liebman, Oliver Lake, Dave Douglas, Matt Wilson, Han Bennink, Mark Feldman and many others. He was the “Margaret Lee Crofts Fellow” for 2000-2001 at the MacDowell Colony, was a Centrum Arts composer fellow (2004) and is currently on the Virginia Museum of Fine Art’s Touring Artist Roster.
Email: mjsjazz@mac.com
Phone: 917-916-1363
Website: www.michaeljefrystevens.com
Studio/Store Location, Serving: Asheville, Black Mountain
Offering Piano Lessons for: Middle/High School, College, Adults, Lessons in your home
Teaching Styles: Jazz, Popular
Offering Other Music Lessons for: Theory, Composition, improvisation
Address: Black Mountain
Bio: Primarily an organist and secondarily a pianist: Church musician, School accompanist, Organ recitalist, Teacher of organ/piano, including college for 50 years. Now retired.
Email: stewart.smith@att.net
Phone: 816-305-1038
Address: Swannanoa
Bio: Laura Chu Stokes, a nationally certified teacher of music, has been a pianist and music educator for more than forty years. A graduate of Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in piano performance, Laura has taught hundreds of students in her private studio and as the director-instructor at Appalachian State University’s Community Music School (CMS). She is a contributing author to the Alfred Music blog https://www.alfred.com/blog/ and Coordinator of the Hayes School of Music Piano Competition for pre-college pianists each fall. As a performer, Laura has been a staff accompanist at ASU and collaborative artist with her husband, trumpeter James Stokes. She has performed numerous recitals, both solo and chamber, and been featured as a soloist with the Columbus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras. Laura also enjoys serving as an adjudicator at MTNA state competitions and performance festivals. Since 1989, Laura has conducted hands-on workshops for www.e-znotes.com, a full line of music learning tools developed by her mother, Lucy Chu. She has been invited by professional music teacher associations and music dealers/retailers nationally as a clinician and featured speaker.
Phone: 614-657-6685
Email: eznotespianostudio@gmail.com
Web Site: eznotespianostudio.com; e-znotes.com
Studio/Store Location, Serving: Boone NC
Offering Piano Lessons for: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Middle/High School, College, Adults
Offering Other Lessons for: Theory, Pedagogy, Mentoring
Offering Other Piano Services: Music Educational Learning Tools
Teaching Styles: Classical, Jazz, Popular
Performers’ Occasions: Recitals, Jazz Events
Address: Boone
Bio: I am an accompanist for classical soloists and choirs. I am a classical pianist who works with singers and choirs. I have worked in the past with the Hampton Choral Society on Long Island and the New York Choral Society in Manhattan. I attended Oberlin College for two years and finished my bachelor's at SUNY Stony Brook. I have been a musical director for amateur musicals as well.
Phone: 828-484-9897
Email: tipikoda@protonmail.com
Address: Weaverville