ESTHER CHU

Esther Chu, who was born into a family of musicians and artists in Taiwan, became the Birchwood music teacher in 2006. At that time, the school's music program was in its infancy. Mrs. Chu immediately began to apply her considerable talent and passion for music to build up the choir. Within several years, she had also organized a variety of ensemble groups such as strings, wind instruments, guitars, recorders, and mixed instruments in order to give as many children as possible a musical outlet. In addition, she leads Birchwood's students to reach out to their community by sharing their music with the elderly. To encourage excellence, she also takes her students to perform at the Greater Cleveland Solo and Ensemble contest where, last spring, they all earned top rankings.

Mrs. Chu brings to Birchwood a musical teaching career of 24 years that extends from teaching preschool to college age students. Since her college years, she had devoted much time and energy to studying and exploring the best ways to develop the God-given musical gift that she feels is within each child: talented or non-talented, performing at a high or low level, motivated or non-motivated. In Mrs. Chu's capable hands, each student has the opportunity to realize the musical potential within himself or herself.     

When one considers Mrs. Chu's own musical development, her vision for each child is not surprising. She enjoyed singing songs and playing instruments before she ever attended school. At the age of five she began formal musical training, and by the time she was nine, she was performing and winning piano competitions! Three years later, she was winning both art and solo vocal competitions. As a young adult, she went on to become the accompanist for a famous youth choir in Taiwan.

After she graduated from Chinese Culture University in Taiwan in 1986, Mrs. Chu came to the United States for advanced musical studies. She received her Master of Art in Piano Pedagogy from California State University in Los Angeles in 1994. During this time, she participated in several famous choirs and performed chamber music with the Anderson Quartet at California State University in Los Angeles from 1995 to1997. Her major piano teachers included Susan Svrcek, Paul Vanasse, Robert Ward, and Meng-xiang Li, all of whom are legendary pianists and professors.

In 2001, she became one of the founders of the To-sheng Ensemble, a group composed of professional Christian musicians from the Great Lakes area. This ensemble performed more than 20 chamber music concerts in different churches or Christian groups throughout the Midwest from 2001-2006. In addition, Mrs. Chu composed several hymns and arranged the instrumental parts for the ensemble to perform. The group recorded six CDs of traditional and contemporary hymns. Furthermore, she contributed several hymn melodies to which lyrics were added; these were published in the Chinese and English versions of Songs and Hymns of Life in 2010.

Mrs. Chu is an accompanist for her church choir and a sought-after piano teacher whose students have won local, state, and international honors. She demands excellence of her students as well as herself. She also coaches a summer Christian music camp at Kenyon College where she teaches piano, theory and chamber music. Realizing that one's musical education is never complete, Mrs. Chu continues to receive regular Orff music training and attends all major music teachers’ workshops.