Ava Nazar
www.avanazar.com
Pianist Ava Nazar is a co-founder at Prelude Music Program NYC. She is a graduate of the Juilliard school where she received her Master of Music degree, and Manhattan School of Music where she received her Bachelor of Music degree.
Ava has performed at notable venues such as the United Nations, Merkin Hall at Lincoln Center, Peacock Theater, National Sawdust, American Museum of Natural History, Duke University, Santa Clara University, Stanford Jazz Workshop, Aspen Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.
With 16 years of dedicated experience in education, Ava is a seasoned piano instructor. Her expertise spans private and group piano instruction at institutions such as Brooklyn Music School, Nord Anglia International School, and Opus 1 Music Studio.
Passionate about expanding musical access across communities, Ava has served as an AmeriCorps fellow through the ArtistYear organization, teaching music to around 100 low-income middle schoolers in a public school in New York. Her efforts extended beyond teaching, as she successfully fundraised for instruments essential to the school's music program. Additionally, Ava has volunteered as a pianist with the Sing for Hope organization, which aims to bring art to communities in need.
Anousha Farshid
Anousha Farshid is a distinguished pianist, educator, software engineer, and co-founder of Prelude Music Program NYC. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of California, Irvine, and continued her education at Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Austria, where she explored computer music.
Anousha has a second bachelor's degree in computer science at Oregon State University. She developed an interactive sound installation commissioned by the Salzburg Museum of Modern Art during her time at Mozarteum, blending her passion for music with technology.
After graduation, Anousha worked as a software engineer at Apple and then Intel for several years. She also developed and published her first music-related app, iClef, on the Apple App Store. iClef allows users to practice reading music from staff paper using different clefs, while tracking progress and training for sight-reading.
Throughout her career, Anousha has performed on renowned stages such as the Solitär Uni Mozarteum and the Salzburg Museum of Modern Arts in Austria, as well as the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg.
With over a decade of experience in music education, Anousha is not only an accomplished performer but also a dedicated piano instructor. She is experienced in both private and group instruction, having taught at esteemed institutions such as Musicum in Los Angeles and the Carl Orff Institute in Salzburg.
Shahriyar Farshid
Shahriyar studied composition and piano in Tehran, Yerevan, and Salzburg, among his most influential teachers are Reinhard Febel, Christian Ofenbauer, Achim Bornhoeft and Artur Avanesov. His music is influenced by his diverse musical adventures rooted in the western classical music tradition, as well as Armenian and Iranian sonic spheres. Shahriyar’s musical influences often stem from literature, history, meditation, and personal experiences that thematize human perception of time and sound beyond linguistic barriers. His compositional portfolio ranges from instrumental and vocal works, music theater works, installations, soundscapes, live electronic and fixed media pieces with worldwide performances at festivals such as Wien Modern, Dialoge Festival, Festival 4020, Mise-en Festival, etc.