Faculty & Staff
Our goal is to offer individual and group music instruction, and ensemble and performance opportunities, to students of all levels and abilities. Our objectives are realized by providing excellence in performing and fine arts education – from beginning through advanced levels – to infancy through adulthood. We also aim to sustain a highly qualified faculty and staff comprised of credentialed, experienced, and dedicated artists, educators, and administrators.
Jacqueline Banks, M. Mus.
Founder & Executive Director
Jacqueline Banks was born in England and raised in Miami, Florida. She began taking piano lessons from her mother when she was three years old and began formal piano instruction six month later through the Suzuki method. Until Jacqueline went to college, she was under the tutelage of piano teachers primarily trained from the National Conservatory of Havana, which shaped her musical development and overall style. She studied at the University of Miami's, Frost School of Music's Preparatory Program, Keyboard For Kids, for 5 years before attending Xavier University of Louisiana on a full music scholarship. From Xavier, she earned a Bachelors of Music in Piano performance and was awarded the Sister Elise Sisson Award for excellence in Music; the highest honor awarded from the Xavier's school of music. She also studied vocal performance and music management at Georgia State University. Jacqueline is also a Certified Yamaha Music Educator from the Yamaha Music Education Institute, L.A., Calif. 2013. She earned her certification in Kodaly Methodology from New York University Steinhardt School of Education and Arts Professions. Jacqueline also has a Masters of Music in piano pedagogy from Georgia State University.
Hailed for her distinctive musicality and expressive warmth, American pianist Jacqueline Banks is quickly establishing herself as one of the country's most sought-after rising stars for a variety of repertoire specializing works by African American and women composers. Mrs. Banks has a wide range of repertoire from C.P.E Bach, Domenico Scarlatti and Chevalier de Saint-George to Bela Bartok, George Walker and Tania Leon.
Mrs. Banks previous engagements have included recitals in Atlanta, Miami, Washington D.C and New York City. She has performed at such venues as the Levine School of Music, the International Keyboard Institute and Festival, New Orleans Piano Institute and Festival, and annual African American Music Festivals in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Jacqueline Banks has been teaching piano and voice for approximately fourteen years and nine years, respectively. She also teaches composition to musically gifted children. She has held faculty positions at several institutions and nonprofit organizations, and specializes in piano instruction, composition, music history, solfege and the Kodaly Approach to music education. She teaches private piano and group piano classes throughout the DMV area. She has also published a plethora of books, 7 are available on Amazon Books, on the subjects of piano, piano pedagogy, and music education for children Pk-12th grade. Mrs. Banks is also the founder and Executive Director of Music Education Today, a publishing company dedicated to the promotion of cutting edge concepts and applications of music education.
Mrs. Banks' students have placed in several piano competitions including the Rising Star Piano Concerto Competition, where her youngest student was 9 years old, performing Mozart’s Piano concerto in A Major, K. 488. One of her student’s also earned a scholarship to Harvard University for Musical Theater. Jacqueline Lives and works in Washington, DC with her husband and two daughters.
Publications
Meet Our Team
Dr. Felicia Lively, D.M.A.
Choir And Musical Theater Director
Voice
Felicia Imre (Colvin) Lively came to the DC area in the early 1980’s. Both a performer and teacher, she has been a music educator of General Vocal music in Montgomery County Public schools for 30 plus years. She studied voice with the late Todd Duncan (Gershwin’s original Porgy in his Opera Porgy and Bess). Her performances include classical recitals, cabaret style shows, operetta, opera and featured as a soloist with local churches and choruses. She received her Doctorate of Musical Arts in education in 2007. Dr. Lively has maintained a private studio of students for 20 years, teaching both voice and piano. She has also served as music specialist and director of Round House Summer Camp- Takoma Park location. In the public schools Dr. Lively has presented opera composed for her students, student created ballad operas, children’s musical plays and Broadway Jr. productions as well as choral programs twice a year. Additionally, Dr. Lively has led students in singing the National Anthem before local baseball games for 23 years.
Siera Toney,
B.A. Vocal Performance
Voice & Singing Lessons for Children
Siera Toney, affectionately known as Siera Grace, is a singer, choir director, worship leader, and radio personality from NW Washington, DC. She earned her Bachelor of Arts and Science in Interdisciplinary Studies from Bennett College, in Greensboro North Carolina. To earn her self-designed degree, she studied Vocal Performance, Womanist Religious Studies, and Global Studies. Since graduation, she has been serving as Mass Choir Director, Praise and Worship Team Coordinator, and Membership Care Coordinator at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, DC.
As a singer, Siera has graced venues from the church house to the White House in six languages and across a wide variety of musical genres including classical, gospel, jazz, musical theatre, inspirational, and R&B, among others. While remaining open to and appreciative of diverse musical expressions from various cultural and generational contexts, she embraces the full spectrum of Black Sacred Music as the soundtrack of her life. During her tenure in the James Abbington Church Music Academy, a program for young church musicians sponsored by the Hampton Ministers' Conference and Choir Directors' & Organists' Guild Workshop, Siera began to embrace a call to teach. Ms. Grace is also pursuing a Master of Divinity degree in Theological Education, at the Washington Theological Consortium.
Eric Lewis, M. Mus.
African Drums, Percussion, & Drum Set
Eric Lewis is a graduate of the Duke Ellington High School of the Arts. He also attended the University of the District of Columbia. Mr. Lewis has studied with many master musicians from all over the world, including Rashied Ali, Abdou konte, Baba Ngoma, and others. For eight years he was a drummer with Washington's top West African dance troupe, Kankouran. He has also lead his own groups including All Souls Percussion Choir, and the H.A.P. Children's Percussion Ensemble. He was a drummer at the Action Chapel Ministries where he worked on his first CD project titled (2 Hands 1 Beat). Among the internationally-known musicians with whom he has worked are Roy Ayers, Oliver Lake, and Sun Ra.
Tarek Mohamed, M. Mus.
Percussion, Drum Set, Vibraphone, Marimba, & Drum Line
Tarek Mohamed is a highly experienced percussionist and educator from Maryland, who has been performing for over 20 years in a wide range of genres including jazz, concert bands/orchestra, rock, hip-hop, gospel, bluegrass, and folk. After graduating from Albright College in 2008, Tarek embarked on his music career, playing with groups and theater organizations in the DC, MD, and VA areas.
Tarek has had the opportunity to share the stage with Arts Centric (The Wiz, Next to Normal, Dream Girls, La Cage Aux Folles, Little Shop of Horrors, RENT) Tobys Dinner Theater in Baltimore (Beehive, Smokey Joe’s Café, Patsy Cline, Grease, and Xanadu) Dizzy Miss Lizzy's Roadside Revue (Oresteia and Saints), EnviroDrum MD, and many more theater organizations and schools in the DC, MD, VA area. Tarek has also worked and extensively toured with Grammy award-winning artist Dom Flemons (The Carolina Chocolate Drops).
Aside from musical performance, Tarek is a highly-educated individual with a master's degree in teaching from the Relay Graduate School of Education. He has put his knowledge to good use by teaching music and movement at Creative Minds International PCS and KIPP DC. He is certified as a special education teacher in DC. Presently, he is teaching a class of 3-5 grade special education students at C.W. Harris school in DCPS.
Dominic Muzzi, D.M.A.
Piano
Hailed for his "mastery, precision, and passion", Dominic Muzzi maintains a flourishing career as a concert pianist, having attained over a dozen top prizes and gold medals in domestic and international competitions. In the 2022-23 season, Dominic performed in venues from Chicago, to New York City, to the Florida Panhandle, garnering prizes in three separate competitions.
Dominic began training in the art of classical piano at the age of four, having shown keen aural ability before that age. Shortly thereafter, he began performing locally in his childhood home of central Florida, giving his first full-length public solo recital at the age of eleven in a local music store. By the age of fourteen, Dominic had earned the American College of Musician’s National Level performance certificate. By age eighteen, he had won the Music Teacher's National Association's Solo Piano Competition for the State of Florida, First Prize in the Florida State Music Teachers Association's Gold Cup Concerto Competition, and Second Prize in the Harold C. Schwartz Foundation Scholarship Competition. Presently, while pursuing his Doctorate at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, he has built a substantial presence in the competitive field; the previous seasons have been immensely successful for Dominic, having earned gold medal and first prize in the 68th Wideman International Piano Concerto Competition, as well as first prize at the National finals of the Music Teachers National Association's Young Artist Competition, sponsored by Steinway and Sons. Dominic also was recognized as a semi-finalist in the Chopin Foundation of the United States' 2020 Competition, as well as a quarter-finalist in the Hastings International Concerto Competition, competing on scholarship after being selected as one of the top three North American candidates. This season, Dominic was Awarded ‘Honorable Mention’ and ‘Special Judges’ Prize’ at the Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Piano Competition, Second Prize in the National Society of Arts and Letters’ Scholarship Competition, advancing to the national finals in Chicago, IL where he was awarded the Robert Milton and Joanne-Dingwell Hanson Prize and Bronze Medal.
As a guest artist and featured soloist, Dominic enjoyed immensely successful debuts as featured soloist with the Shreveport Symphony and Symphony New Hampshire, performing the first two piano concerti of Sergei Rachmaninoff. His playing was reviewed as 'breathtaking', 'electric', and 'incredible.' He also performed two concerts with The Villages Philharmonic Orchestra, presenting Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto in the Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center. Furthermore, he appeared on the Texas Street Arts Series, as well as two 'Chopin for All' concerts sponsored by the Chopin Foundation of the United States. Adapting to the pandemic, Dominic also appeared on two virtual concert series, presenting innovative programming and lectures on the ‘Empowered Musician’ and ‘5pm’ concert series, as well as speaking on podcasts and interviews. An enthusiastic recitalist and educator, Dominic frequently returns home to Florida to perform concerts in a community outreach capacity, having delivered engaging lectures and promoting an accessible approach to fine art for students and audiences alike.
Ronald “Trey” Walton,
B. Mus.
Organ, Piano, Jazz & Gospel Piano, & Keyboard
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ronald “Trey” Walton has been performing and composing music since the age of twelve. He is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and conductor whose works have been showcased in recital halls and churches up and down the east coast. Ronald Walton has written music in a wide variety of genres: chamber, orchestral, vocal, opera, and jazz. His first full opera, for which he served as both librettist and composer, was Dear Louie.
He has been part of the music ministry in several churches as a music director or organist and currently serves as organist at Mount Zion United Methodist Church, the area’s oldest African-American Congregation. Ronald also serves as the Jazz Ensemble Music Director for the Coalition for African-Americans in the Performing Arts (CAAPA).
Trey is a graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in tuba performance. He currently attends the University of The District of Columbia as an organ performance major. Currently, Trey is working on an opera called Sons of our Fathers and an orchestral suite inspired by the history of American Cowboys. He will also share compositional credits in Alliance for New Music-Theatre’s expansion of a major work inspired by the artist Jacob Lawrence.
Katie Chambers., M.Mus.
Cello
Ms. Chambers graduated with her Undergraduate Degree in Cello Performance from the University of Maryland, College Park , and a Master's of Music in Cello Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is an active member of the American String Teachers Association and the Music Educators of Greater Annapolis, where her students often participate and compete in their events. Ms. Chambers is also teaching with the DC Youth Orchestra Program in Washington DC.
Katie Chambers is an accomplished and passionate cellist and teacher. Broadway World's Evann Normandin calls her “an exquisite player in every sense” and her playing, called "heavenly" by Joel Markowitz. Katie Chambers has played on various television shows and at many prestigious venues such as Lincoln Center, The Kimmel Center, The Strathmore , and The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage.
Katie Chambers has also recorded and performed with various singers and songwriters, including Victoria Vox, Javon Inman, Matthew Hemerlein, Jordan Page , and Randall Williams. Katie is known for her unique improvising knowledge and extensive recording and performance experience, winning awards including the Washington Area Music Award in 2011, for her work on the album Vox/Ukulele/Cello. Katie Chambers is also very proud of her work with and for children. In 2009, Imagination Stage premiered "Wake Up, Brother Bear!" theater for the very young with music composed by Katie Chambers.
Musical theater is what drives Ms. Chambers. She is a composer, arranger, and pit performer, bringing more cello to the theater has been Ms. Chambers' most recent focus.
Molly Flanagan D.M.A.
Brass & Wind Ensemble
Molly is a member of the Ignis fellowship quintet and a DMA candidate at the University of Maryland studying under Greg Miller- she was formerly a member of UMD’s Oculus [Five] quintet from 2019-2021 She holds degrees and certificates from Boston University, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Lynn University. As a Guildhall student, she was featured with her chamber group The Eolienne Quintet and other Guildhall chamber ensembles on BBC’s radio 3 as part of the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s “Total Immersion” program. She and members of the Supernova Woodwind sextet (2015) won the Ivan Sutton award for chamber groups with piano sponsored by Guildhall, the City Music Society, and the City of London Corporation as part of an annual competition. She also participated in the London premiere of Jonathan Dove’s “The Monster in the Maze,” a joint commission by the London Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, and the Aix en Provence festival for professional, conservatory, and amateur orchestra and choir. She has participated in a number of summer music festival, including the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria, a summer opera academy where she performed as a member of the orchestra. She currently teaches and freelances, including performances as a substitute musician with the Jacksonville Symphony, the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, and the Florida Grand Opera.
Charles Foster, B. Mus.
Guitar & Ukulele
Charles has been sharing his passion and love of music for over 20 years, through means of performance, education, and ministry. His journey began at an early age while studying brass (trumpet, tuba, and baritone) during his elementary, middle, and high school years. Excelling and winning many local and state competitions, Charles then realized that he had a God-given gift and wanted to pursue it as a career. Around the same time, he immersed himself in learning a new instrument- the bass guitar. Charles has had the opportunity to study under such industry session musicians like James Jamerson Jr., former bassist of Chaka Kahn and Tolbert Collins Jr., former guitarist/arranger of Crystal Waters, both Grammy Award-winning artists.
As a performer, Charles has been in several projects, opening for groups ranging from Seventh Day Slumber, George Lynch, to Dwele. he has also done session work for various artists in the midwest. As an educator, Charles has had the honor of teaching music theory and basic piano to students of all ages at the prestigious Clark Conservatory of Music and Arts, located in Detroit, Michigan, which was founded by the award winning gospel group, The Clark Sisters. As a bass instructor, he has 10 years of experience in teaching a multitude of styles, such as gospel, folk, rock, fusion, and r&b, as well as modern techniques that include slapping, counter-point tapping, and harmonic phrasing concepts.
In addition, Charles is also a seasoned songwriter and audio production specialist, and has had the pleasure of working with several artists and projects in the midwest.
