The Music Studios' Teachers

Dr. Khoo Hui Ling

FOUNDER OF THE MUSIC STUDIOS
PEDAGOGY CONSULTANT, TEACHING SUPPORT PROGRAMME
PIANO TEACHER, ADVANCED PIANO PERFORMANCE PROGRAMME
​WEBSITE: WWW.KHOOHUILING-PIANO.COM
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For Khoo Hui Ling, playing the piano is a reflective meditation. It is a vulnerable and precious expression of what is in the heart and she enjoys sharing this experience through both performing and teaching. Hui Ling is currently Lecturer of Music Studies at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, and Founder and Pedagogy Consultant at The Music Studios, where she mentors piano teachers and students.
 
Hui Ling's sensitivity to detail and ability to elicit the strengths of every student have helped students gain entry into prestigious music programmes, festivals and competitions. As faculty at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, she teaches contextual studies and is the teaching assistant to Prof. Thomas Hecht. In 2018, she founded The Music Studios, a collective of private music teachers with a mission to help every music learner build a lifelong friendship with music. The Music Studios has since grown with her creations of innovative programmes for both students and teachers.
 
Having a strong conviction to positively impact the music teaching community, she has shared her experiences as a piano pedagogue at the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) Music Teacher Conferences, Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference, and the Singapore International Piano Pedagogy Symposium.  Most recently, she kickstarted and curates the pedagogy forum series The Learning Curve at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. Prior to her current teaching appointments, she has taught in various capacities at Nanyang Girls' High School in Singapore, the University of Oregon and the preparatory division of the Peabody Conservatory of Music.
 
A curious soul, Hui Ling has diverse artistic interests. Her artistry at the piano has been heard in recitals in the United States, Europe and Singapore. Her forays into multidisciplinary performance have led to the production of Walking in the Wild, a music and dance collaboration. Excerpts were presented at the 2019 Performers' Presents International Artistic Research Symposium at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. For her doctoral research, she produced short documentaries about the confluence of Chinese traditional music and painting in Tan Dun’s 8 Memories in Watercolour. This culminated in a multimedia performance that premiered in the United States and Singapore in 2016.
 
In her free time, Hui Ling enjoys trekking mountains and taking photos of spectacular scenery. Hiking has taught her valuable lessons that can be applied to music. She also fiddles around on the erhu, which she picked up upon joining the Chinese orchestra as a teenager. She likens playing the erhu after a day of practicing the piano to drinking a cup of fragrant Chinese tea with an old friend. As a child, she used to write fantastical stories that may have been the cause of some nightmares. Now that she is older, she still loves writing. A regular contributor to The Music Studios blog Music Matters, she has recently written a short essay ‘Three Birthday Wishes for Children’ for The Birthday Book 2019 in celebration of the Singapore Bicentennial.
 
Hui Ling graduated with a Doctorate in Musical Arts from the University of Oregon under the tutelage of Dean Kramer. She previously studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music with Brian Ganz, and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of music with Thomas Hecht. In her childhood and teenage years, her love for music was cultivated by Julie Tan who taught her piano, and Xu Wen Jing who taught her erhu. Based in Singapore, she hopes to further develop her interests in performance, teaching, and in innovative collaborations with other artistic fields

Ms. Arlene Chng

PIANO TEACHER, PIANO PERFORMANCE PROGRAMME
​MUSIC APPRECIATION PROGRAMME COORDINATOR
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​Arlene Chng attained her Licentiate diploma LRSM (Instrumental teaching), DipABRSM and CTABRSM from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. An experienced teacher with 15 years of teaching, her students range from ages 4 to 20 years old, as well as adult beginner learners. Arlene is gifted at helping young learners taking their first steps into piano playing, those keen to develop their love for music through piano playing, as well as students interested in taking the graded exam track.
 
A strong believer in lifelong learning, she constantly looks to upgrade her skills by attending workshops on music education and exploring piano performance and pedagogy under the tutelage of Dr Khoo Hui Ling. She has great interest in the Dalcroze approach of music education as well and has been learning about the method since 2014. She has attended numerous Dalcroze workshops in Singapore and summer courses with Dalcroze Australia and is on the Dalcroze Australia Teacher Training Track.​
 
Arlene's positive outlook to life is often transmitted to those around her. Her studio was recently featured at the Library@Esplanade Young Musicians' Festival 2018 and the joy she brings to learning could be heard in the sincere performances of her students.​

Ms. Gracia Teow

PIANO TEACHER, PIANO PERFORMANCE AND
​ADVANCED PIANO PERFORMANCE PROGRAMME
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A passionate pianist and music educator, Gracia Teow hopes to instill in her audience and students a genuine love for music through performance and music education. An experienced music and piano teacher, Gracia has had experience teaching in both one-to-one and classroom settings and has been actively teaching students from all walks of life, ranging from beginners to advanced learners, as well as young children to adults.

A diverse and versatile pianist, Gracia is also an accompanist who has had experience playing with choir, church band, as well as other instrumentalists. Gracia has also collaborated with other musicians for performances and production of original music. Her experiences singing in the church and school choirs over the years have also cultivated her interest in music and shaped her to become the musician she is today.

Gracia graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2021 with a Bachelor of Music (Honours), majoring in Classical Piano Performance under the tutelage of Frank Joseph DeMeglio. She has also been coached by internationally acclaimed composer and performer Dr John Sharpley, Allan Fuller, Arkadiusz Bialak and Clarence Lee. She has also performed at masterclasses for international pianists Richard Ormrod and Nicholas Loh. A driven individual who constantly strives to improve and develop her skills as a pianist and teacher, she currently studies performance and piano pedagogy under the tutelage of Dr Khoo Hui Ling.

Ms. Kristy Man

PIANO TEACHER, PIANO PERFORMANCE PROGRAMME
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​For Ms. Kristy Man, music education is her true calling as it combines her two passions in life – children and music. Kristy holds an ABRSM Diploma in Instrumental Teaching (Piano) as well as the Australian Kodaly Certificate (Early Childhood and Primary level). She has been teaching piano privately since graduating with a degree in English Literature.
 
With a gentle demeanor and lyrical singing voice, children warm up to her almost instantly.  A proud mother of two, she understands the precious individuality that each child brings to the world and is therefore able to recognize the talent in each child and plan her lesson accordingly. She has never given up on any one of her students, and her persistence has opened many hearts.

Ms. Low Zhi Min

PIANO TEACHER, PIANO PERFORMANCE PROGRAMME
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An ardent music educator, teaching piano sparks joy when Zhi Min witnesses her students' progress in their musical journeys. With patience and passion, she is able to realize the artistic potential within every student. Her unique pedagogical approaches enable her students to appreciate beauty in music whilst developing a strong foundation. She specializes in teaching young children and adults, and has taught students ranging from 4 to 60 years old for both leisure and graded exams.

Complementing her calling as a music teacher, Zhi Min is also an education researcher and has advocated programmes promoting child and mental wellness. These experiences have led to a greater exploration in topics such as motivation and music psychology in recent years. They have also shaped her belief in instilling important values such as grit and a growth mindset in students through music education. 
 
Zhi Min holds a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from National University of Singapore. Apart from numerous certifications in piano performance, Zhi Min is currently undertaking the ABRSM Diploma in Piano Teaching, studying under Dr. Khoo Hui Ling.

Ms. Yee Yun Ying

PIANO TEACHER, PIANO PERFORMANCE
​AND ADVANCED PIANO PERFORMANCE PROGRAMME
​ENSEMBLE PROGRAMME COORDINATOR
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Ms. Yee Yun Ying is enthusiastic and has a great passion for music. She teaches beginning to advanced students, and she works with all styles of music including classical, and contemporary music. A teacher with 16 years experience, her goal is to instil a sense of music appreciation, while at the same time ground students with a strong foundation. 

Yun Ying studied her Masters in Piano Performance from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama under a scholarship, graduating with distinction under the tutelage of Richard Mcmahon. Prior to this, she received her Bachelor's degree in Piano at the Universiti of Malaya with First Class Honours. Her performances have earned her invitations to perform in the Trinity Guildhall Awards and Concert, and the very same year, was selected to receive the Certificate of Excellence in Piano Performance by Trinity Guildhall. Yun Ying studied with Loo Bang Hean, Lim U-Jin and Richard McMahon, and has been coached by Stephen Hough, Nicholas Ong, Dennis Lee, Ian Brown, Foo Mei Yi, Graham Caskie, James Kirby, Roger Owens, Llyr Williams and Imogen Cooper.

Her natural musicality won her the Most Promising Pianist Award from Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. She has since performed in several places including Cardiff Castle, Plas Bryn, Cardiff Chinese Church and St. David’s Lutheran Church in the UK. 

Mr. Jerison Lee

PIANO TEACHER, PIANO PERFORMANCE PROGRAMME
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A passionate musician, dancer and pedagogue, Jerison has set his sights on making music accessible to a diverse audience and using music to better one’s life. For this life mission, he has chosen Dalcroze Eurhythmics and its approach to facilitate his work.

Jerison received both his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts (2016) in Dalcroze pedagogy from the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze, Geneva. To further develop his knowledge and skills in working with Dalcroze, he has travelled the world to study with various Dalcroze masters. While he was in Geneva, he also studied piano with renowned pianists, Sergio de Los Cobos and Christine Guye

With a strong foundation in ballet and dance, he continued to study ballet and modern dance while in Geneva. The combination of mastery in both music and dance furnishes him with a unique ability to truly deliver the essence of Dalcroze Eurhythmics.

Since his return from Switzerland in 2015, Jerison has been actively promoting, conducting and teaching Dalcroze workshops and classes to musicians, dancers and arts educators in Singapore, and has been repeatedly invited to present and teach in many Asian countries. His work has brought him to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, Vietnam, Europe, America and Australia.

Jerison has many years of experience teaching young children both piano and musicianship. His animated character attracts children’s attention and adoration.​