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Our Academic Staff

  • All teachers of the Woodbridge Academy of Music have long performing and teaching careers, with plenty of professional experience both in theory and in practice.
  • Under teachers supervision, our students consistently receive multiple awards from various competitions, auditions, festivals, and perform in most prestigeous Concert Halls of New York and New Jersey, such as Carnegie Hall, Allys Tally, Merkin, Steinway, Kaufman, Kosciuzko Fondation and more.
  • Many of our students passed Royal School of Music Exam; and our string instrument students are players in various NJ Youth Orchestras.
  • With our teachers encouragement, some students have gone to pursue successful professional music careers.

 

  • Dr Valery Shevchenko - Founder and Director, Violin Lessons

Valery is a violinist with a long and very rich international performance and teaching career. His students have been accepted among the rest to the Julliard and Eastman Schools of Music. He held numerous teaching posts in Russia and the US and regularly teaches international Master classes.

Throughout his performance career he appeared in the tri-state area, including the Carnegie Hall and the Avery Fisher Hall. He toured together with Tchaikovsky Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia Virtuosi Orchestra of New York throughout Europe, North and South America, and Japan and appeared as a soloist with notable orchestras including the Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the American Symphony and others. He was the founder and leading performer of the Ameruss String Quartet which performed at the President Ronald Reagan's inauguration.

Dr Shevchenko serves as a judge at the International Gnessin Piano Chamber Ensembles Competition in Moscow.

  • Larisa Pavlova MA, BA - Piano Lessons

Larisa holds a BA from the Leningrad Musical College and MA in piano and Theory of Music from the St. Petersburg State Conservatory, Russia. Has been teaching at the Woodbridge Academy of Music since 1997.

  • Natalia Poukas MA, BA - Piano Lessons

Natalia has been teaching at our Academy since 1999; she holds a BA from the Lviv Musical College and an MA in piano and Theory of Music from the Lviv State Conservatory, Ukraine.

  • Dr Yuriy Trayman PhD, MA - Piano Lessons

Yuriy holds a PhD from the Kazakhstan State Conservatory in Alma-Ata and an MA from the Odessa State Conservatory in Ukraine. Before joining our Academy in 2014, Yuriy taught and performed as a soloist and a chamber ensemble player in New York.

  • Olena Melnyk MA, BA – Piano Lessons

Olena has been teaching piano at our Academy for more than 8 years. She holds a BA from the Music College of Lutsk, and an MA from the Lviv National University in Ukraine.

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