My Bio Musicale

Here I am in front of Carnegie Hall in 2009.

When I was very young I wanted to play the piano and sing, just like my grandfather, my mother and my aunt. After we moved from New York City (where I was born) to Long Island when I was about six, I was allowed to take piano lessons and later voice lessons, both of which I greatly enjoyed all through high school and college. I participated in choirs that traveled to nearby states and performed piano at my teacher’s recitals and at school events. 

After a tryout at Steinway Hall in NYC my senior year of high school, I was awarded a voice scholarship which I maintained during my college years. After receiving a B.A. in Music from Elmira College in upstate NY, I studied piano at the Conservatoire Americain in Fontainebleau, France, outside Paris.

After Fontainebleau, I wanted to diversify, move beyond music, so I attended the Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School in NYC for a year. After graduation, I was hired by the Peace Corps, and soon assigned to Tunis, Tunisia. As training, I spent several months working in Washington, D.C. (during which time Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in the National Mall across the street from the Peace Corps office, and President Kennedy was assassinated a few months later and brought back to the White House, also across the street from the Peace Corps office).

While living in Tunisia, marrying my husband, Ali, and raising our daughter and son, I was asked by some members of the American community there to teach piano to their children. Although at first reluctant, I found to my surprise that I greatly enjoyed teaching, working with students, and witnessing their joy and progress experienced through music. I found teaching challenging, rewarding, and energizing.

After we returned to the United States to live, I began serious teacher training. Through classes at UC Santa Cruz, I earned a California Teaching Credential and Certificates for three levels of Orff Schulwerk pedagogy. Through classes at Cabrillo College, I passed several levels of Spanish with the goal of teaching in public schools.

During approximately the same time, I was earning certificates for five levels of Suzuki teacher training at Holy Names College in Oakland, recognized for its fine music and Suzuki program. My principle teacher, Merna Thomas, nominated me as a candidate for the Master’s Program and that I study with their master teacher, Roy Bogas. With Roy, I did most of my coursework, performed two full-length memorized recitals, and earned the Master of Music Degree in Piano Pedagogy from Holy Names. Roy is a superb teacher, who shows his students how to find the messages hidden in music and then teaches them the means/the technique to communicate it. This is my goal with students I work with as well. 

Ellen Rose Khayat