Trained in the driving melodies of Celtic fiddle tunes and the precise beauty of Classical music repertoire, Emily Moore is an active performer and educator in Southern California. Studying violin and piano from the age of 4, she has remained a lifelong student in music, finishing her BM in Popular Music Performance from USC and in continuing education with the Suzuki Association.

A veteran of the freelance music community in Los Angeles, Emily has worked with a huge range of artists, played hundreds of weddings, recorded on more albums than she can count, and has performed at Santa’s Village more than once. Her solo music can be found on all streaming platforms and she has additional releases under “Constellation Quartet” and “The Grand Tangent.”

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Emily has studied with Michael and Irina Tseitlin, Alice Schoenfeld, and Sungil Lee. She trained privately under Sherry Cadow (Colburn) for two years and continues her formal Suzuki training with David Strom (Northern Virginia Suzuki School) and additional pedagogy with Elizabeth Faidley (NYC).

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Emily is the founder of South Bay Music Conservatory and believes that the future leaders and change makers of our communities come in and out of our studio every week.

Jonathan Burns is a violist, violinist, and music educator based in Los Angeles, California. He holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he studied with Steve Wyrczynski and Ed Gazouleas.

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Jonathan currently enjoys an active career as a freelance violist and teacher in the Los Angeles area. Since 2022, he has been a teaching artist at Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA), the LA Phil’s community-based music education program. At Indiana University, he studied with influential pedagogues Mimi Zweig and Brenda Brenner and is continuing his Suzuki teacher training with Sherry Cadow.

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As an orchestral musician, Jonathan has been a member of the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and was the assistant principal violist of the American Youth Symphony from 2021-2024. Additionally, he has performed with the New World Symphony, the Evansville Philharmonic, the Columbus Philharmonic, and the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra.

An avid chamber musician, Jonathan studied chamber music with members of the Grammy winning Pacifica Quartet during his time at IU. In 2022, he performed as a soloist with the Indiana University Baroque Orchestra. He has participated in numerous summer festivals such as the National Orchestral Institute, where he led the viola section as principal and assistant principal viola. He has also performed in master classes for teachers such as Jeffery Irvine, Carol Rodland, Katherine Murdock and Daniel Foster.

​Milaena Martínez is a pianist and instructor from Los Angeles, California. She is a graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music, where she studied with Dr. Stewart Gordon for thirteen years, and of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she received her master's degree under the instruction of Dr. Jonathan Bass. She has frequently performed as a soloist with orchestras, including Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the USC Concerto Chamber Orchestra, Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the New Valley Symphony Orchestra in Los Angeles, and Mendelssohn’s Capriccio Brillant for Piano and Orchestra with the Coachella Valley Symphony.

Milaena annually performs full-length recitals throughout the United States and enjoys regularly collaborating with fellow musicians in performance. She is a recipient of the Steinway Junior Artist Award, the Steinway Society Recognition Award, and the Woody Herman Jazz Award with experience in performing several musical styles.

In 2023, Milaena was an award recipient in the Boston Conservatory Piano Honors Competition in which she performed the Ginastera Piano Sonata No. 2 as well as a five-time winner of the Steinway Society of Riverside County Piano Competition and first-prize winner of the 2009 MTAC Los Angeles Branch Sonata Competition. Milaena was a keyboardist in the USC Thornton Symphony and participated in USC Popular Music showcases led by Patrice Rushen as a songwriter, keyboardist, singer, and arranger. Milaena has premiered and recorded original works of various composers throughout the country and given lecture-recitals for the students of K-12 schools in the Coachella Valley for a decade, sponsored by the Steinway Society of Riverside County.

As a young pianist, Milaena was an opening soloist for the Coachella Valley Symphony in 2007 (led by Christian Chalifour), a featured artist in a documentary titled “Steinway Virtuosos” that premiered at the Palm Springs Art Museum in 2009, and was invited to perform a piano duet with Nancy Bricard in concert at the age of seven.

Milaena is currently based in Los Angeles, where she enjoys performing, teaching, composing, producing, and arranging music. 

​Born in the heart of Los Angeles, Edgar Sandoval is a classically trained violinist and pianist. Edgar has had the privilege of playing under the baton of John Williams, Kent Nagano, and Michael Tilson-Thomas. In collaboration with the America Youth Symphony, he has performed with Placido Domingo, Sir James Galway, and Sarah Chang. Notable pop performance include Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Dr. Dre, Deadmau5, Odesza, Aloe Blacc, One Republic, The Foo Fighters and Burt Bacharach.

Melissa Cusano is a freelance writer and music enthusiast based in Los Angeles, California. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Film Studies from Chapman University’s renowned Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, where she studied under the instruction of Dr. Kelli Fuery. 

Melissa has written for numerous online publications, including the esteemed entertainment news platform Screen Rant, as well as extending to journalism for multiple music magazine platforms. She also recently published her first book, “The Grim Reaper Gave Me a Sense of Humor.” 

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Melissa is the studio manager at South Bay Music Conservatory; if you've scheduled lessons, it's likely with her!

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