Jen Lewin, Dynamic Music Instruction

Jen began playing the piano from the young age of 5 and hasn't looked back since! Classically trained as a child, she began to really love playing when she started experimenting with ragtime and dixieland music at the age of 12 and had the opportunity to play jazz with other musicians at the age of 14. She graduated from Vancouver Community College with a major in jazz piano and a minor in contemporary voice in 2001, and spent two years performing all over the world before coming back to the Fraser Valley to begin teaching full-time in 2003. She has extensive choral experience, having begun singing with the Mission Community Choristers in 1994 and eventually performing with and even conducting in performance world-class Elektra Women's Choir, led by Morna Edmundson and the late Diane Loomer. Jen has studied with such jazz piano greats as Alan Matheson, Richard Samuels, and Bob Murphy, and had the pleasure of studying classical voice for several years with Paula Kremer and took some jazz lessons with Grammy-award winning singer Dominique Eade.

Jen has performed styles including pop, country, jazz, rock/top 40, and even traditional African music with Vancouver band "9 1/2" and her own original music with her band, Stronger Than Lions. Jen also has experience doing larger stage shows and recently performed "Jersey Nights" at the Avalon Ballroom in Niagara, Ontario. She currently performs regularly with Goby Catt under the name Take Two! Duo (www.taketwoduo.ca).

Jen has over ten years' experience teaching piano and voice lessons, and is also a licensed Kindermusik educator. Her students have received high ratings in festivals, Royal Conservatory exams, and several have gone on to continue their music education at the post-secondary level. Jen also provides her services occasionally to local high schools as a jazz keyboard clinician for band and choir retreats. A dedicated, energetic and dynamic teacher, Jen takes genuine pleasure in her students' progress and truly enjoys spending time with all students, all ages, all levels, all styles.