Mengyue (Jane) Jia, earned her DMA at Claremont Graduate University, majoring in piano, harpsichord and fortepiano performance. As a performer, Dr. Jia is actively commissioning and performing music in the US and China. She had been invited to give masterclasses and lectures in public, and she also been invited to serve as a piano competition judge and perform for many grand events, including the Peking University Alumni and Tsinghua University Alumni Annual Gala in Los Angeles and Grand Art and Cultural Show in San Diego. Recent highlights include recordings on the keyboard music of J.S. Bach.

Born in Chengdu, China, Dr. Jia started playing the piano at the age of four. Enthusiasm and hard work enabled her persistently to learn new skills and gain rich knowledge in the world of Classical music. As a teacher, she said what made her feel the most accomplished is to see her students eventually find a way to build confidence in their own artistry through the music. Most students have studied piano with Dr. Jia for many years, the longest being six years. Focused on aspects of students' motivation, self-belief, and goals, Dr. Jia uses various learning strategies suitable for each of them to help them learn piano efficiently. Some of her students won prizes in such competitions as Bach competition and the Yamaha piano competition. Some of them passed exam with great grades, ABRSM for example. All her students learned a diverse repertoire from different time periods and countries. Not only teaching performing, Dr. Jia also emphasizes ear training for her students. She believes a good ear will teach them how to play the piano musically, and it will also be great helpful for performing techniques.

After the in-depth academic and practical training of the piano performance, Dr. Jia choose to go on to further study on historical keyboard instruments (harpsichord and fortepiano), from which the modern piano evolved. Every kid plays Mozart, but most of them probably never thought about that Mozart’s piano is different as ours. If they knew and heard the piano from Mozart’s time, they would have ideas on how to play Mozart really “Mozart” when dealing with touching, pedaling, phrasing and fingering. Under the guidance of a musical giant of the 20th century Gustav Leonhardt’s student Dr. Robert Zappulla, years of study on early music makes Dr. Jia’s performance and teaching more convincing and distinguished. She is more than happy and excited to share those fun facts to her students. Following Dr. Jia, students will develop a comprehensive approach to the piano music, as her motto says, “learn beyond 88 keys.”