Flora Nevarez is music faculty and strings coordinator at Ashley Hall and Director of the Ashley Hall String Academy and Private Lesson Program. Since 2021, Ms. Nevarez has re-established the Ashley Hall String Academy and has overseen the growth of the private lesson program and its faculty. Before moving to Charleston, Ms. Nevarez studied violin pedagogy under Mimi Zweig and Brenda Brenner at the Indiana University String Academy at the Jacobs School of Music while she pursued doctoral studies in Music Education. She has performed extensively in the United States and Europe as an orchestral, chamber, and recording musician on both violin and viola, and is a frequent guest musician with Charleston Symphony Orchestra.

Email: [email protected]

Raised in Chapel Hill, NC, Frances Hsieh was an A.J. Fletcher Scholar at Duke University, earning dual degrees in Music and Biology. She received her Masters at the Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Charles Castleman and performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra through the Eastman Orchestral Studies Program. Frances has won positions with the Colorado Music Festival, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Principal 2nd Violin of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, and Assistant Concertmaster of the Asheville Symphony. An avid teacher, she has been teaching at Ashley Hall since 2009.  Frances currently plays with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and is a core member of Chamber Music Charleston, with which she has had the pleasure of performing at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall.

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Anna Brock has taught piano at Ashley Hall since 2013. She is the pianist for the Charleston Gospel Choir and the North Charleston Pops. Mrs. Brock has recently performed at Spoleto Festival USA, Piccolo Spoleto Festival; with Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Opera Theater, and Small Opera Company. She was named a “Teacher of Distinction” by the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) in 2023 and is the RCM exam center representative at Ashley Hall. She is a member of the Charleston Music Teachers Association (CMTA), South Carolina Music Teachers Association, and holds national certification as a piano teacher through the National Music Teachers Association. Her piano students have participated in masterclasses, CMTA’s Achievement Day, Charleston Sonatina Festival, and SCMTA events. Mrs. Brock also teaches music theory and is a certified Advanced Placement Music Theory Teacher. She has previously taught at Samford University Preparatory Department, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Charlotte Latin School. Mrs. Brock is Ashley Hall’s head collaborative pianist.

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Since joining Ashley Hall’s faculty in 2021, Loretta Haskell has taught piano lessons, General Music, Musical Theater, Caroline’s Carolers (the Lower School choir), and accompanied group strings classes. Ms. Haskell is a professional singer, organist, choir director, voice and piano teacher, and adjudicator. She holds Voice Performance degrees from Furman and Northwestern Universities and has extensive coaching and training from master teachers throughout the U.S. and abroad. While living in Chicago and New York she performed numerous concerts, operas, and recitals. In Charleston, she has maintained a private voice and piano studio since 1994 and has performed as a soloist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Chamber Music Society and Piccolo Spoleto Festival. She frequently adjudicates for state, regional, and national auditions for The National Association of Teachers of Singing and has also served as music critic for The Post and Courier. She is organist and Music Director for St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and is a candidate for the internationally-recognized Dalcroze Certificate, an experiential way of knowing music through the body, from the Dalcroze School of the Rockies. 

Email: [email protected]

Jan Jemison Smith joined the Piano Faculty at Ashley Hall in 2016. She holds degrees in Music Education from the College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati and a Master of Music in Piano Pedagogy from. Ohio University. As a Nationally Certified Teacher in the National Music Teachers Association, she has been awarded “Teacher Of the Year” in Ohio 2006 and “Teacher of the Year” in West Virginia 2010. She is presently a member of the Charleston Music Teachers Association. Mrs. Smith has been granted “Elementary Specialist”, “Intermediate Specialist” and “Advanced Specialist” qualifications by the Royal Conservatory Teacher Certification Program. Her students have received Awards and Honors With Distinction through all of these organizations.

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Dr. Soohyun Yun, Korean-born pianist, began teaching piano at the Ashley Hall in Fall, 2023. Dr. Yun is Director of Piano Studies and Associate Professor at Charleston Southern University where she teaches studio, group piano, chamber ensembles, piano literature and pedagogy. As an international performing artist, Dr. Yun has performed solo and chamber programs at prestigious venues including Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall in New York, Gewandhaus Concert Hall in Leipzig Germany; and Sejong Art Center in Seoul, Korea, among others. She has given presentations, published articles, adjudicated competitions, and taught master classes in numerous venues locally, nationally, and internationally. Recently, she traveled to perform with Wando Chorus in Italy in 2024. Additionally, Dr. Yun enjoys teaching all levels and ages privately. She is also a life-time church musician, and currently plays at the Church Creek Presbyterian Church in West Ashley. 

New Ashley Hall guitar faculty member Michael Bunny began his studies with distinguished professor James Piorkowski at the State University of New York at Fredonia as a Bachelor of Music in Guitar Performance. He would go on to pursue his Masters Degree in Guitar Performance, studying with Dr. Stanley Yates at Austin Peay State University, and is currently completing his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Guitar Performance at the University of South Carolina. During his master’s studies at Austin Peay State University, Mr. Bunny was the teacher of record for Intro to Music, as well as the coach of the undergraduate guitar ensemble and teacher of private lessons to undergraduate guitar students. At the University of South Carolina, during his Doctoral Studies, he has taught class guitar, private lessons for undergraduates both within and not within the guitar studio, and the undergraduate guitar ensemble. Mr. Bunny has been the recipient of several awards and scholarships, including the Oasis Guitar Jury Prize twice (2016 and 2018), Trinity Guitarist of the Month four times, and was a finalist in the 2023 Southern International Guitar Competition. He was awarded the Isaac Stern String Scholarship in 2018 and the Henry and Sylvia Yaschik Scholarship in 2023. As a performer, Mr. Bunny has toured several times in different chamber groups throughout the East coast of the United States of America, ranging from Rochester, NY, to Baltimore, MD, to New York City. Mr. Bunny has had the opportunity to play in a plethora of different concerts as a soloist as well, including a concert for the legendary Cuban guitarist, composer, and conductor Leo Brouwer, playing at the Classical Guitar Society of Upstate New York Festival in 2023, and being a member of the Carnegie Lullaby Project for NPR broadcasting in 2023.

Email: [email protected]

Zoe Walker has been teaching violin and viola at Ashley Hall since 2017. Before receiving her Masters of Music in Violin Performance and Pedagogy in Arizona, Zoe earned a B.A. in Violin Performance under Singaporean violinist, Lee-Chin Siow, and Charleston Symphony Concertmaster, Yuriy Bekker, at the College of Charleston. Ms. Walker has been selected as a soloist and chamber musician for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Charleston Music Festival, and Zodiac Music Festival in Southern France. She performs regularly in the Southeast with the North Charleston POPS!, Augusta Symphony, Wilmington Symphony, and Beaufort Symphony. Additionally, Ms. Walker performs solo and chamber music for weddings, private, and corporate events in Charleston through her business Zoe Violin & Ensembles.

Dan McCurry has taught piano and music composition at Ashley Hall since 2021. He has a B.A. from College of Charleston where he studied Composition under Dr. David Maves and Dr. Edward Hart and Jazz Piano under the late Tommy Gill. He currently serves as President of the Charleston Music Teachers Association and Creativity in Music Chair for the South Carolina Music Teachers Association (SCMTA), helping to launch a statewide composition and songwriting competition and recital as well as companion workshops featuring composers such as Wynn-Anne Rossi, Mike Springer, songwriter Michael Flynn (of Slow Runner). His students have received local, statewide, regional, and national recognition for their compositions with MTNA, NFMC, Piano Guild, Piano Inspires Kids magazine, Piano Explorer magazine, and Charleston Sonatina Festival. His students have been accepted into music composition summer camps such as Brevard, Interlochen, and UNCSA with merit scholarships as well as music composition programs at Peabody, Winthrop, USC, and College of Charleston with music scholarships. He has been granted the “Elementary Piano Specialist” qualification by the Royal Conservatory Teacher Certification Program. His students regularly participate in masterclasses, CMTA’s Achievement Day and Louise Mathis Scholarship Auditions, SCMTA District and State Auditions, SCPFA Piano Festival, and RCM Exams consistently receive high marks.

Co-Director Aubrey Goio joined Ashley Hall’s private lesson faculty in 2011. She currently teaches private cello, group lessons; as well as curricular Kindergarten and 1st grade cello, and Intermediate Program Strings. As an active performer, she has performed cello abroad and throughout the United States for chamber music festivals and music events as a freelance musician, playing with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, North Charleston POPS! Orchestra, and various wedding ensembles. Recent performance highlights have been playing with the L’istesso Quartet for Candlelight Concerts by Fever and performing cello for Josh Groban, Johnny Mathis, and Michael Bublé concerts. Mrs. Goio holds a Masters of Music in cello pedagogy from the University of Denver where she earned her Suzuki Cello Teacher Certification and a Bachelor of Music in cello performance from the University of South Carolina.