Faculty

We are very proud of our outstanding faculty of professional performers/instructors. Not only do each of our music instructors hold Master’s degrees
(or have exceptional performance experience), they all have extensive teaching credentials and impressive professional credits!

Interested in how The Ridgewood Conservatory can bring music into your life?

QUICK LINKS

CONTACT INFORMATION

OPENING HOURS

UPDATES & OFFERS

To get News about our monthly updates and offers!

INQUIRE

CALL US

Bill Moring

Bassist Bill Moring is a versatile musician whose scope includes gigging with the big bands of legends Count Basie and Woody Herman, jammin’ jazz/funk and beyond with the Dave Stryker/Steve Slagle quartet, or stretching harmonic and rhythmic boundaries with John Hart and Chris Potter to performing in the classical vein as a freelancer or orchestra member.

During his early years as a musician in Indiana, Bill played bass in cellist Hank Roberts’ group, was a member of the Indianapolis Philharmonic, worked with John Von Ohlen’s big band, and played with Dizzy Gillespie, Slide Hampton, and Cal Collins. After moving to NY, he worked with drummer Mel Lewis, toured with Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd and the Count Basie Orchestra, and gigged with the Village Vanguard Orchestra and the Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabakin Jazz Orchestra. He has performed with such renowned singers as Joe Williams, Mel Tormé and Susannah McCorkle, and with jazz legends Frank Foster, AI Cohn, Clark Terry, Mickey Roker, Tommy Flanagan, Junior Cook, Roland Hanna and Ray Barretto. He has also performed and/or recorded with many contemporary artists including John Abercrombie, Gary Bartz, Manolo Badrena, Larry Coryell, Vic Juris, Dave Kikoski, Billy Hart, John Hart, Eddie Henderson, Joe Locke, Mulgrew Miller, Chris Potter, Dom Salvador, Dave Stryker, and James Williams.

Bill attended Indiana State University while also playing bass in cellist Hank Roberts’ group. He has studied harmony and piano studies with Michael Moore, classical bass repertoire and technique with Homer Mensch (Julliard, NY Philharmonic), Gregory Dugan (Indianapolis Symphony), and Stuart Arfman (Principal, Indpls. Symphony), jazz bass and sound reinforcement studies with Rufus Reid, jazz and classical bass with George Mraz.

An advocate of music education, Bill has hosted an assortment of student clinics at various high school and college jazz festivals in the US and abroad and is currently on the faculty at Montclair State University, Sarah Lawrence College, and NJPAC’s Jazz for Teens. In addition to his private students, he has worked with students individually and in various sized groups at North Texas State, Rutgers, The New School, Jersey City State, Long Island University, and SUNY Purchase, among many others.

(Hear Bill Moring perform, with The Ridgewood Conservatory’s Jazz Faculty Trio, ‘Stella by Starlight’ by Victor Young: https://youtu.be/YTw2BVFArFY.)

Catherine Yang

Violinist Catherine Yang was born into a musical family – her father was a principal cellist of the Korea Broadcasting Symphony (KBS) and a professor in music, and her mother was a KBS violinist. Catherine began her violin studies in Korea at age of six. At eight years old, she won the Music World Magazine competition series’ Gold prize, the Korean Daily Newspaper’s Gold prize and the Yoo-kyoung competition in Seoul Korea, and was a Grand prize winner competing with all instrument/age group of Gold prize winners. Catherine entered Juilliard Pre-College in New York City at age nine, studying violin under the world-renowned pedagogue Dorothy De-Lay. While in school, she gave recitals at Paul Hall at Lincoln Center, performed as a soloist with Inter-School Orchestra of NY at Alice Tully Hall, and performed as a scholarship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado and at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall at age 12.

Catherine went on to study violin at the Manhattan School of Music under Peter Winograd of the America String Quartet. During her college years, she performed at the Caramoor Center, the Rosen Theater, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC as a member of Chamber Sinfonia, Isaac Stern Hall at Carnegie Hall, and as associate concertmaster for The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in collaboration with the Oratorio Society of New York.

As a professional chamber musician and soloist, Catherine has given solo concerts at Carnegie Weill Hall and at Merkin Concert Hall, and performs with professional ensembles at such prestigious venues as Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fischer Hall at Lincoln Center, Issac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, NJ PAC, Central Park’s Naumburg Bandshell, and Bargemusic in NYC. She currently serves as concertmaster of both Verismo Opera of New Jersey and New York Festival Orchestra, and assistant concertmaster of the Symphony of Westchester.

Catherine has a certificate from Juilliard Pre-College Division, and both Bachelor and Masters of Music performance degrees from Manhattan School of Music. As an instructor, her students have earned recognition at Little Mozart, Crescendo, American Protege Competition and National Artists Competition. She teaches at the Green Meadows Waldorf School and at the Rockland Conservatory of Music.

(Hear Catherine Yang perform ‘Partita No.3 in E Major Preludio’ by Johann Sebastian Bach: https://youtu.be/GmjIso39acQ.)

Sung Ho Yang

Native Korean pianist Dr. Sung Ho Yang has appeared in concert halls around the world, including solo recitals in Italy, Spain, Slovakia, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.

Winner of many prestigious competitions and scholarships, Sung Ho won the Grand Prize at The Segye Times Piano Competition in Seoul, Korea in 2002. He later won the Second Prize at the International Competition of Piano Performance Florestano Rossomandi in Foggia, Italy, and Third Prize at the Johann Nepomuk Hummel International Piano Competition in Bratislava, Slovakia. Sung Ho left Seoul National University to move to Boston after receiving New England Conservatory Merit Awards and Scholarships to study with Wha Kyung Byun and occasionally with Russell Sherman, Artist-In-Residence.

Sung Ho’s most recent concert performances include the Guest Artist Recital Series at JCC on the Palisades, Tenafly, the Distinguished Artist Concert at Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Music Center, the DeMenna Center for Classical Music in New York, and BridgMusik Festival at Union Arts Center, Sparkill. He has performed as a concerto soloist with Slovenská filharmónia, the Classical Notes Philharmonic, BridgeMusik Festival Faculty Artists Chamber Ensemble, Arco Youth Orchestra, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Symphony Orchestra, and Seoul National University Symphony Orchestra. His wide range of repertoire includes chamber ensemble for brass, woodwind, and string. In the BridgeMusik festival, he participated in chamber ensembles with Tanya Witek, Krystof Witek, Madeleine Golz, Marji Danilow, Frederick Zlotkin, Désirée Elsevier, Vincent Lionti, Danny Mui, and Halley Gilbert. In addition, he works as a collaborative pianist with diverse artists such as conductor David Jeong, soprano Julie JungHwa Park, Sodam Jeon; cellist Karen Poleshuck, violinist Yong Tae Kim, and flutist Katharine Sun Cho. He has published diverse duo ensemble recordings since 2015 with Dr. Cho, and collaborates with Jerry Bryant and Gilles Bernard in Jersey City.

Sung Ho Yang graduated with Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees, and a Graduate Diploma in Piano Performance, from the New England Conservatory of Music, and received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He worked at the Thurnauer School of Music as a collaborative pianist before joining the faculty at New Jersey City University. Over the years, he has taught piano, music fundamentals and theory to young beginners and teens, pre-college and college students.

Claudette Peterson

Over the course of her illustrious career, soprano Claudette Peterson has sung over 35 leading roles with major opera companies in the U.S. including The Lyric Opera of Chicago, The San Francisco Opera, Opera Company of Boston, Washington Opera, and the MUNI in St. Louis, and internationally with the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opera du Nice and the Canadian Opera among other well-known venues.

Claudette has performed 15 leading roles during her tenure of nine years as a leading soprano with New York City Opera. She has appeared on PBS’s Gala of Stars singing “Glitter and Be Gay” with James Levine conducting the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and on Live from Lincoln Center, where she starred as Lisette in Puccini’s La Rondine. A versatile artist featured on the roster of Columbia Artists Management, Inc., Claudette collaborated with her husband, bass-baritone David Kline, in a duo recital From Opera to Broadway, which was the most popular program on the CAMI Community Concerts Series for three years in a row, eventually totaling 105 performances across the U.S. and Canada.

With over 30 years of teaching private voice lessons in a wide range of genres from Opera to Musical Theater and Pop, Claudette has sent over 100 of her students to more than 20 of the top music schools in the country including Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, Indiana University, University of Michigan, New England Conservatory, NYU, Carnegie Mellon and Cincinnati CCM. In addition, a number of her students have played leading roles on Broadway in Pippin, Hairspray, Wicked, and many national tours including Book of Mormon, Contact, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and Hairspray among others, while many are singing leading roles with opera companies both in the U.S. and abroad. She has coached her high-school students in popular music, many of whom are known for their a capella groups, several in their top group “voices’ which recently ranked #1. Two of her young female students were soloists with Voices, both of whom recently appeared and sang in the film Marry Me with Jennifer Lopez.

Claudette Peterson is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Merola Opera Program. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of OperaFest, LLC., and has produced 13 Opera Festivals, performing in Tolentino Italy, on Martha’s Vineyard and here in Ridgewood, NJ. OperaFest has also produced nine Recital Concerts at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall.

Click here for THE RIDGEWOOD CONSERVATORY'S ON-SITE COVID19 SAFETY PROCEDURES.

Faculty

Interested in how The Ridgewood Conservatory can bring music into your life?

To get News about our monthly updates and offers!

SALLY SHUMWAY

Susan Heerema

Kathleen Ditmer

Jay Shanman

Kory Grossman

Scott W. Simpson

Sergio Garcia-Marruz

Richie Ranno

Catherine Campbell

Eric Clark

KAREN DALLEY

Linda Decker

RON LEVY

Ayako Morino

Bob Rodriguez

Pamela Vera

Sung Ho Yang

Ginny Stephens

Justyna Giermola

Claudette Peterson

Angelica Sokolovic

Anna Maria Ferrone