Our Teachers
Jennifer Aradhyula
Director & Instructor
Jennifer Aradhyula, Director and Instructor
Ms. Jennifer founded Keynote Piano Studio in 2007, after completing a Master of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at SMU. Since then, KPS has been operating at full capacity with a 2+ year wait list.
Jennifer began studying piano at the age of 3 under the tutelage of a master Suzuki teacher in Louisville, KY. During the summers, Jennifer’s training was accelerated as she performed in master classes given by Haruko Kataoka who was responsible for adapting the Suzuki violin method to piano. However, at the age of 12, Jennifer transferred to a non-Suzuki teacher, thus gaining experience as a student of both traditional and non-traditional methods of teaching.
In 2005, Jennifer became the recipient of a full scholarship and a Teaching Fellowship at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. Jennifer’s teaching responsibilities included undergraduate class piano for music majors and non-majors, private lessons for undergraduate non-majors, private lessons and group lessons for pre-college students. While at SMU, Jennifer gave a lecture-recital on three composers, Muzio Clementi, Claude Debussy and Erik Satie, based on primary research conducted at the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris; performed a solo piano recital including works by Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and Rzewski; and presented a lecture-recital by invitation at the McGill Music Graduate Symposium at McGill University in Montreal. Jennifer was nominated by her professors and chosen to receive the Music Teacher’s National Association StAR award for excellence in piano performance and pedagogy.
Artem Arutyunyan
Instructor
Artem Arutyunyan, Instructor
Born in Moscow, pianist Artem Arutyunyan started his piano studies at the Gnessin Children School of Music with Irina Belova – a student of the prominent Russian pianist and pedagogue Evgeniy Liberman. Artem continued his music education at the prestigious Central Special Music School in Moscow in the class of Kira Shashkina. In 2003, Artem entered the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory where he studied under the tutelage of the acclaimed pianist and prize-winner of Tchaikovsky Competition, Arkady Sevidov.
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Following his move to the United States, Artem received a full scholarship and an associate instructor position to study with Evelyne Brancart and pursue his Master of Music degree at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University. At IU, Artem taught in private and group-class settings, and he was a sought after accompanist and duo partner, performing frequently in the major halls of Jacobs School of Music.
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In master classes and festivals, Artem has performed in the concerts of the London Masterclasses, the Int’l Holland Music Sessions and had lessons with Norma Fisher, Jacques Rouvier, Pavel Gililov and Carol Leone. Among notable recent performances, Artem played a duo recital in collaboration with violinist Nune Melikyan at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in Manhattan, NY. His upcoming performances include collaborations with cellist Nikolay Shugaev and pianist Artem Belogurov.
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Artem has completed the Performer Diploma program at the SMU Meadows School of the Arts, studying with Carol Leone. As a music teacher, Artem believes that every person can be musical and every student deserves an individual approach – that is, to recognize student’s strengths and from this foundation move further from the comfort zone. Recognizing the important role of the piano technique, Artem, nevertheless, believes that the primary tools of any musician are good ears, imagination and an attitude of exploration of one’s instrument. Moreover, Artem always encourage any piano student to explore another musical instruments as well as activities like dancing or acting, not to mention reading. In his view, these related disciplines arranged not to compete in the busy schedule of modern children, have a synergetic effect in forming of an individual.
Chiara La Ferla
Instructor
Chiara La Ferla, Instructor
“A life without music is a life without soul.”
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Chiara graduated at the secondary school specializing in classical studies in Italy. She started her musical education in piano when she was seven years old. During her musical career she achieved her Master degree in piano performance, the license of musical theory, harmony and history of music.
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She took part as an accompanist pianist in many musical theatrical representations about Spanish and Russian cultures and performed in many masterclasses given by important artists such as Homero Francesch, Roberto Bianco, Epifanio Comis, Violetta Egorova and Daniele Petralia. During the week of the International Piano Fest in Subotica (Serbia) she performed a solo recital for the Chopin International Piano Fest - Electe.
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She has taught piano lessons for more than 10 years and has worked in several school projects and events organized by local institutions. Winner of the 5th European Musical Performance Competition in Sicily, she also took part to meeting about “Music therapy applied” and worked as piano accompanist of the famous Italian opera singer Marcello Giordani.
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She moved from Italy last year and is enjoying making her home in the North Dallas area.
She is an active member of DMTA and collaborates as a teacher with Collora Piano in Dallas.
Elisa Barton
Instructor
Elisa Barton, Instructor
Elisa Barton is the church pianist at First Sachse UMC. As the daughter of a church pianist and piano teacher she started piano at very young age. While studying at University of Rochester as a Public Health major, she played in the practice rooms daily and worked to improve her skills, such as sightreading. Without any guidance or private lessons at the time, she prepared her audition pieces and was admitted to Southern Methodist University as a piano major. At SMU she studied with Alfred Mouledous. She was in the world music ensemble, which required improvisation in many different scales and time signatures.
Elisa is active in continuing her own music studies by taking organ lessons with UNT’s PhD organ student and friend Sungyoon Kim. She likes to share her organ and piano music on her YouTube channel regularly. Her favorite things to do are run, meet with friends, and listen to all types of music. After teaching piano locally for the past 3 years, she is excited to join Keynote Piano Studio. Her fiancé Surendra and her dog and 2 cats have a new calm home in Forney, Texas.