A b o u t h e r t e a c h i n g & p h i l o s o p h y
Myrna Setiawan has been teaching since 1992 starting with her private teaching and also became one of the piano faculty at College Conservatory of Music Preparatory Department at University of Cincinnati, OH in 1998 - 2001.
In addition to her extensive performing experiences, Ms. Setiawan has been teaching for 30 years and is very passionate about teaching. She found teaching very satisfying when she could motivate her students to keep improving on their piano skills, and most importantly, could inspire them to gain tremendous love towards music and playing the piano. As there is no instant gratification in learning to play musical instruments, it is truly a challenge and an absolute highest achievement for her as a teacher to plant the love and passion of music to her students. The majority of her students studied with her until they graduated High School, and some have chosen Music as their Major of Study or continued music as a Minor subject when they go to colleges and universities.
Her former residence was Santa Clara, CA where she continued her private teaching and become a member of the Music Teacher Association of California Santa Clara Branch since 2001. In 2004, Myrna Setiawan founded the NorCal Music & Arts Center (NCMAC) in Sunnyvale and was the CEO and owner of her music school NCMAC until Dec 2016 when she finally decided to sell the business and mainly focus on just performing and teaching which are truly her ultimate passion. She along with her husband Glenn D Naydan (Violinist & Violist & teacher) recently relocated to Beaverton, Oregon and resides here where they now offers their piano & violin/viola lessons. She is an active member of Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) and Oregon Music Teachers Association (OMTA) for the Tualatin Valley & Portland districts.
With her extensive performing and teaching experiences, Myrna Setiawan has developed a teaching strategy that focus on getting the right technique from the very early stage of study along with incorporating musicality and musical understanding. She believes that every student has different strengths and weaknesses, different physical advantages and limitations, so she incorporates different approaches and methods for each student. However, above all the most important elements of her teaching philosophy is to implement the love of music to her students. The greatest satisfaction is to be able to make students excited about learning a piece of music and perfecting it.
Myrna Setiawan also has given master classes in the United States and also Indonesia. Several of them were for the Randolph College - Lynchburg, University of Louisiana - Lafayette, Laveck Concert Series in Oswego - New York, Louisiana Music Teacher Association Convention in Lafayette - Louisiana and for music schools in Indonesia including the Gloriamus School of Music, Allegro Music School and Quatro Music School. She has also invited to judge competitions in Indonesia and in the United States such as San Francisco Chopin Competition for Young Pianists and Louisiana MTNA Competition as the most recent.
Her piano lessons are held in her home piano studio in Beaverton, OR using the two most prominent professional 9 foot concert grand Steinway D and 9 foot concert grand BÖsendorfer 280 normally used in prestigious concert halls, so her students can experience the best quality instruments.
Videos of student performances can be watched on YouTube: M | G Music Studio Student Recitals
RECENT NEWS!
After teaching her at about one year, I decided to enroll Cecilia Chang (age 6) for the Baroque Festival held by Tualatin Valley MTNA last January 2021. She is probably my youngest student and with relatively very short amount of study I ever put into festivals. Cecilia is a very smart, hard working student who comes in with a big beautiful smile and happy face for each of her lessons which for the last year have been done online due to unravelling Covid-19 pandemic (although we practically live about 4 minutes by walking from each other). Being the youngest age in her division & her very first experience in performing, I'd like to congratulate her on her achievement getting HONORABLE MENTION award from the festival. Her work and dedication to polish the piece and her accomplishment is something to be acknowledged & encouraged. I am very proud of her!! I hope this could motivate her to keep learning and keep the joyful spirit in learning the piano for many years to come.
Michelle Pan - age 15 (student of Myrna Setiawan) has just won 1st place at the 2018 US Open Music Competition - Advanced Treasury of Romantic Composer Category. She will perform at the US Open Music Competition Winner's Concert on February 24, 2018. I am very proud of her and her accomplishment.
Chesley Mok (student of Myrna Setiawan) won ECYS Concerto Competition – performed Yellow River Concerto with El Camino Youth Symphony. Chesley has graduated and received her Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from UC Irvine and her Master of Music degree in collaborative piano in San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
