Meet our Piano Teachers!

RCM ARCT Performance in Piano and Violin, and Piano Licentiate of London (England) College of Music; B.Mus. and MMus in Trumpet Performance, Boston University.  

During high school, Dr. Neal Andrews earned ARCT diplomas in both piano and violin from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto as well as the Piano Licentiate of the London (England) College of Music. These achievements combined with his trumpet skills led his piano teacher (the renowned Edward Parker) to dub him the future “one-man conservatory.”

While earning both the master and doctoral degrees at Boston University, Neal performed on numerous occasions at Boston’s Symphony Hall as 1st trumpet with the BU Symphony Orchestra. At that venue, a reviewer noted Neal’s performance to “merit special commendation.” Also during his time in Boston, Neal served as teaching assistant at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. 

Dr. Andrews’ abilities on trumpet have received national recognition in both Canada and the United States. In Canada, these were recognized early with a CBC Galaxie Rising Star award (2003) as “Best Classical Musician Under 16.” In addition, Neal twice represented his home province of BC at the National Music Festival (FCMF). 

In the United States, Neal’s university ensembles were repeatedly selected to participate in the U.S. National Trumpet Competition, most notably in 2009 when his trumpet ensemble placed 3rd nationally. More recently, Terry Everson, professor of trumpet at BU, recommended Neal to perform a series of concerts with the Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass.Neal was a founding member of the Andromeda Quintet, a professional brass quintet in Boston. He also played soprano cornet for 5 years with the New England Brass Band under the direction of the composer/arranger Stephen Bulla whose recommendation led Neal to join Toronto’s Weston Silver Band.

Neal has been teaching piano, violin and trumpet for many years and is very excited to be a part of our team of teachers at CMC. 

B.Mus., New England Conservatory of Music, M.Mus, University of Toronto 

Mezzo-soprano Alida Doornberg has recently completed her Master of Music degree at the University of Toronto where she studied with celebrated soprano Monica Whicher. While at U of T Alida completed a teaching practicum under the guidance of Lorna MacDonald, head of Vocal Pedagogy. Alida has since enjoyed growing and learning as a teacher through offering private lessons to singers of all ages. 

From 2017-2019 Alida performed with Voicebox: Opera in Concert and was featured as a soloist in their “Chorus Fire” concert with Russell Braun and and Isabel Bayrakdarian, and “Comedy Unbound;” a tribute concert for Stuart Hamilton. Opera roles include Ino in Semele with the Toronto Lyric Opera Centre, Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte and Cornelia in Julius Caesar, both with the Summer Opera Lyric Theatre of Toronto (SOLT). Additional chorus credits include La bohème with Against the Grain Theatre and Candide with Toronto Operetta Theatre. 

Alida is a proud member of Echo Women’s Choir where she serves as the alto section lead and has assisted in directing and arranging songs for the choir. Alida has participated in many prestigious summer festivals and Young Artist training programs including the Vancouver International Song Institute's French Melodie Immersion program, the Cowtown Opera Summer Academy in Calgary, the Taos Opera Institute in New Mexico, and "Si parla, si canta" Italian language and opera program in Urbania, Italy. Alida is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where she earned her Bachelor's of Music degree with Honours.   

B.Mus. in Performance, UVic; MMus in Piano Performance and Pedagogy, UofT 

Iris Hung began playing the piano at the age of five, after learning “Hot Cross Buns” (for two fingers). Since then, she has learned to use all of her fingers and has performed across Canada and in Austria and the United States as a soloist and chamber musician. At the age of six, she won her first BC Provincial Medal of Excellence from Conservatory Canada for her grade one exam, and in 2010 and 2012, won the National Medal of Excellence for the highest exam mark in Canada for grades 9 and 10 piano. A winner of many local and provincial festival classes and competitions, Iris recently performed with the University of Victoria Orchestra as the winner of the annual concerto competition. She has also studied at the Universität Mozarteum’s Internationale Sommerakademie in Salzburg, as the winner of the Johann Strauss Scholarship Competition.

Iris believes that music is a powerful tool for self-discovery and expression, and strives to instill a high level of integrity and a deep love for music in her students. She began teaching piano in 2011, working with beginners as young as four years old. Since then, she has also coached university students and tutored music theory, history, and musicianship. With five years of pedagogy and student-teacher training, Iris is familiar with working with students of all skill levels and preparing students for recitals and festivals. 

Iris graduated with distinction from the University of Victoria with a Bachelor of Music in piano performance while also having studied at the Victoria Conservatory of Music. Both under the tutelage of May Ling Kwok. She recently complete the Master of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Toronto, under the instruction of Dr. Midori Koga.  

Iris is excited to be a part of the CMC teaching faculty! 

B.Mus. Classical Piano Performance (McGill), M.Mus. with Distinction, Dalcroze Teaching License (Longy School of Music, Boston, USA), Diplôme Supérieur (L’Institut Jaques-Dalcroze / La Haute École de Musique de Genève, Switzerland).

For more than a decade, Cheng-Feng has been working with families and students here at CMC. Seeing the students grow musically and as human being has been a great source of joy and curiosity for him. 

Locally he has been invited to present workshops for the Early Childhood Music Association of Ontario, the Etobicoke Suzuki School, the Royal Diploma program of RCM, and teachers of the TDSB, and early childhood music teachers at RCM, University of Ottawa and Wilfrid Laurier University. He also presented topics related to piano pedagogy and Dalcroze Eurhythmics at conferences in Quebec, Switzerland, and Yukon Registered Music Teachers’ Association. He has also been invited as a guest teacher internationally in USA, Mexico and France.

Cheng-Feng also serves as the co-director of studies for Dalcroze Canada, where he mentors and supervises the teacher training candidates. Prior moving to Toronto from Boston in 2006, he was on the faculties of the New England Conservatory of Music, Powers Music School, and the Winchester Community Music School.

Cheng-Feng continues to share his gift and joy for music in Toronto through teaching and performing. He finds his passion and inspiration in developing the musical artists within the hearts of his students and helps them to find their self-expression through musical embodiment.    

B. Mus, Berklee College of Music

Kat McLevey is a multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, and arranger from St. John's, NL. Kat's early musical life involved singing in choirs, taking classical piano lessons and playing french horn in school bands. In her teens, she gravitated towards guitar, electric bass, and mandolin, finding an avenue for songwriting and production. She quickly made a name for herself among Newfoundland and Labrador's gamut of prestigious songwriters with the release of her debut album Evergrown in 2015. With its characteristic alternate guitar tunings and twisting melodies, the record earned Kat Female Artist of the Year and Emerging Artist of the Year at the 2015 MusicNL Awards, as well as a nomination for Rising Star of the Year at the 2015 East Coast Music Awards.       

After taking a gap year to write, perform, and record, Kat pursued a Bachelor of Music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA studying electric bass, jazz composition, American roots music, and just about everything in between. After graduating in the summer of 2019, she hit the road with acclaimed songwriter Tim Baker on a tour across the US opening for Half Moon Run. Moving to Toronto on the heels of that tour, Kat has settled in well as a session musician, performer, arranger, and educator. She can be found performing and touring with the bands Zinnia and Donovan Woods.      

As a teacher, Kat loves helping students connect with their creativity and engage with music in new ways. With training in both classical and jazz traditions, her teaching approach gives structure to her students' goals and interests. She couldn't be happier joining the team at CMC! 

Canadian flutist Sarah Pollard is an active performer and teacher based in Toronto. As an orchestral musician, she held the position of second flute and piccolo with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra during their 2021/2022 season. Sarah is an alumna of the 2021 Orchestra of the Americas, the 2021 National Repertory Orchestra, Colorado (unable to attend in-person due to COVID-19) and the 2021 National Academy Orchestra of Canada. Previous orchestral memberships include the Royal Conservatory Orchestra, the McGill Symphony Orchestra, the Pronto Musica Orchestra, the National Academy Orchestra of Canada, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestral Institute at Whistler and the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra. 

As a chamber musician Sarah has performed with numerous ensembles, a highlight of which was performing Boulez’s infamous Le marteau sans maître in the 2018 Ottawa Chamberfest’s New Music Now Festival. Sarah has had the honour of being invited to participate in several other chamber music festivals across Canada as well, including Banff’s Evolution: Classical festival directed by the Gryphon Trio, and the Bathurst Chamberfest in New Brunswick. 

A passionate and well-respected teacher, Sarah teaches flute and piano students across Canada. She has been invited to coach the flutists of the Durham Youth Orchestra as well as the Québec Youth Wind Ensemble. 

Sarah is a recent graduate of The Glenn Gould School’s Artist Diploma program, where she studied with full scholarship under the direction of Susan Hoeppner. Sarah previously studied with Carolyn Christie (McGill University, MMus Performance), Nora Shulman and Peg Albrecht (University of Toronto, BMus Performance). In masterclasses and music academies, Sarah has most recently had the opportunity to study with renowned flutists Emmanuel Pahud, Leone Buyse, Jeanne Baxtresser, William Bennett, Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson, Demarre McGill, Kelly Zimba, Joanna G’froerer, Henrik Heide, Agata Igras, Robert Langevin, Gwen Klassen (piccolo) and Claire Guimond (Baroque flute).   

Sarah is excited to part of the CMC faculty! 

B.Mus., Calgary, M.Mus., Doc of Mus., U of Toronto

Erik Ross composes for all musical media and he has written for productions that include electronics, theatre, film and dance. His large choral work, Icarus in the Sea, with text by Lorna Crozier, was toured four times in Canada by the Canadian Chamber Choir, and his chamber opera Northern Lights, Eastern Fire, with librettist Phoebe Tsang, for which he was also the pianist and music director. His commissions also include a piece for Toca Loca’s P*P Project, a solo steelpan and brass band piece for steelpan virtuoso Liam Teague for the 25th anniversary season of the Hannaford Street Silver Band, a large work for the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan and a chamber orchestra piece for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. His concerto for saxophonist Wallace Halladay and percussionist Ryan Scott premiered in March 2013 on the final concert of the 30th anniversary season of the Esprit Orchestra. His song cycle, Waypoints, with the poetry of Zachariah Wells, was written for Phillip Addis and Emily Hamper and was premiered in Toronto and was subsequently performed by the commissioners at the Bastille Opera house in Paris. His most recent commissions also include a song for tenor Lawrence Wiliford and a song cycle for soprano Ambur Braid and the Canadian Art Song project, on the death poetry of Charles Baudelaire. He is currently writing a song cycle for chamber orchestra, soprano and tenor for g27.  

Dr. Ross’s Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra was premiered by Joseph Salvalaggio and the Memphis Symphony, and it was performed again at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Melbourne, Australia, by Diana Doherty under the direction of Nicholas Daniel. His piano trio was premiered by the Gryphon Trio at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, he wrote a chamber opera for Tapestry New Opera Works’ production at the Opera America Conference, and he wrote a marimba concerto for Ryan Scott and the Esprit Orchestra.

He holds a Doctor of Music degree from the University of Toronto where his advisor was Christos Hatzis and he was a two-time recipient of the John Weinzweig Scholarship. He spent two years composing for the Canadian Composers Music Workshop at the Festival of the Sound under the direction of Gary Kulesha, he has acted as musical interpreter for numerous John Oswald projects, and he has acted as dance captain for numerous Halo Ballet productions (a piece that combines live music with live video dancing).  

Erik also takes great enjoyment in performing contemporary classical/jazz/rock repertoire, particularly that of his peers, and he is an improvising pianist and keyboardist, including performing for the New Creations Festival with the Toronto Symphony. He has received numerous awards, fellowships and scholarships, including top prizes at SOCAN, and has received commissions from the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, the Music Gallery, Roger D. Moore and the Laidlaw Foundation.  Erik is an avid educator, and has taught private and conservatory piano, theory, improvisation and composition lessons to individuals of all ages and ability levels for 20 years. He has taught classes at the University of Toronto and U of T at Scarborough and has been an instructor/composer for numerous music programs including: education director for Soundstreams Canada’s Cool Drummings Festival; the Canadian Music Centre’s outreach program; with the Gryphon Trio at Earl Haig Secondary School; the Classical Music Conservatory; the Canadian Composers Music Workshop; the Canadian League of Composers’ Composing the Future; the Canadian Children’s Opera Company’s OPERAtion KIDS program; Young People’s Theatre’s Music Theatre program.  

Erik has also written works for artists and ensembles such as soprano Carla Huhtanen, counter-tenor Scott Belluz, the Aldeburgh Connection, Arpatambora, the Caliban quartet, the Lee-Villanueva Duo, oboist Sarah Jeffrey, accordionist Joseph Petric, hornist Gabriel Radford, as well as a cave installation that was produced in collaboration with the Contemporary Keyboard Society through the New Music in New Places series of the Canadian Music Centre. His compositions have been performed by artists such as vocalists Tracy Smith Bessette, Norine Burgess, Teri Dunn, Matthew Leigh, Allyson McHardy, Marion Newman, Giles Tomkins and Vilma Vitols, hornists Nancy Goodearl and Joan Watson, New Music Concerts, the Talisker Players, and the Land’s End Chamber Ensemble. He has had live performances of his works in Australia, Canada, England, France, Japan, Latvia, Thailand, and the United States.  

Erik is at: www.erikrossmusic.com  

M.Mus. Piano Performance (University of Music and Dance Cologne, Germany)  

At the age of 7 Cathy Yang started her musical career with Prof. Zhaoyi Dan in China. Soon after she immigrated to Canada and continued her musical journey with Vladimir Niurenberg in Toronto. Her professional musical studies were completed with Prof. Ilja Scheps at the University of Music and Dance Cologne (Germany) with a Masters degree in piano performance. While in Canada, she participated and received prizes in many regional piano festivals and also in the nation-wide Canadian Music Competition. In 2006, she won two first prizes at the solo and concerto competition at Ithaca College in New York, USA.

In May 2006, she was invited by the Vladimir Spivakov International Foundation as one of two representatives from Canada to participate in their music festival Moscow Meets Friends. Performing in the Central Music School in Moscow, Russia, she shared the stage with some of the most talented young musicians from around the world.

In 2010, Cathy won the third prize in her age category at the International Piano Competition Vila de Capdepera in Spain.

While in Aachen, Germany she was invited multiple times by the Collegium Musicum orchestra of the RWTH Aachen to perform as the soloist in the piano concertos of Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin. She also performed in Poland with various orchestras. As a member of Aix Alma Trio she toured several times in Germany.

Cathy was part of the Pedagogical Internship with Dorothee Broichhausen in 2012 where she gained more love of teaching. Cathy has been teaching for 10 years, now lives in Los Angeles, California and is currently working on some innovative piano projects. She is excited to join the musical family at CMC.