Philosophy

Dr. Jessica Chiu believes musical talent is existed in everyone's soul. If children have happy and fun musical learning experience at young age, the happy memory  will help to stimulate their talent and motivate themselves to practice harder to achieve their further musical desire. 

Dr. Chiu considers that learning music/piano with listening, singing and dancing is more natural than focusing on reading notes. Through her 20 years of teaching experience and research for young beginners,  Dr. Chiu found teaching young kids to read music symbols and theory  too early not only create stress and frustration to young kids, it may miss the golden time to foster children's aural and motor skills, which is the main key to master music performance when they grow up. 

Experience

Dr. Chiu founded the school in 2012 as a research lab for her dissertation research. Her research purpose was to find out if group lesson versus private lesson influenced students' learning outcome. She recruited 48 students and invited Mr. Joseph Dougherty to participated her study. The experiment period ended in 2014, but since many students wanted to continue the lesson, Jessica decided to keep the site and continue to provide piano education. 

Dr. Chiu completed her dissertation and received her Doctoral Degree in Music and Art in 2016. Through her study, Dr. Chiu found out the great benefit of group learning for young kids and that reminded her own musical experience with YAMAHA Music Education of her childhood. While completing the last part her dissertation, Chiu  contacted the YAMAHA headquarter in LA, and applied for establishing an Yamaha Music School . In 2018, La Belle officially became the first YAMAHA Music School in Washington State.

In 2017, Jessica was selected to presented her study in International Symposium of Performance Science in Reykjavik, Iceland. In this conference, Jessica had chance to share her study and vision about music education for young children with several well-known music education scholars. Their validation and suggestion encouraged Jessica to continue on what she does now for students at La Belle. 

Besides teaching and managing school, Jessica likes to travel, taste and cook good food,  and go hiking.  You may also find her skiing in Snoqualmie Central during ski season. 

Ms. Mandy (Yi-Ju) Chou has more than 10 years of experience in teaching piano. Before moving to the U.S. in 2021, Ms. Chou not only taught piano, but also served as a music teacher at several elementary schools in Taiwan. She won multiple awards as a conductor of children’s choir. Ms. Chou’s experience of working with young children at elementary school made her an expert to teach young students. Her passion and energy encouraged many students to enjoy playing piano.

Ms. Chou hopes her students can really enjoy playing piano, and have music as a life-long companion, regardless of their professions in the future. To pursue her vision, she dedicates to introduce various styles of music to students-from classical to contemporary, and try her best to find the most effective way to help each individual student.

Ms. Chou studied piano and bassoon at National Taiwan University of Arts. During her college years, she also completed two educational certificates. One is Early Childhood Education Certificate, and another one is Orff Education Certificate. Besides teaching piano and music classes, Ms. Chou also devoted her time to join Schweitzer Education Program in Taiwan, where she would teach music classes at remote rural schools where students couldn’t receive regular music classes.

Whether he’s performing or helping someone else to learn, Joseph loves to share music with others. He believes everyone has more potential than they may realize and is committed to helping them achieve their musical desires. Through a series of practice techniques developed on fundamental principles, Joseph forms a customized yet flexible routine for each person that matches their current ability and learning style. In this way, effective practice becomes habitual, leading to musical fluency, capable technique, and a sense of ownership.

While practice standards are strict, Joseph sees no conflict between fun and progress, and considers them necessary partners. Whether it’s through spontaneous humor, inventing musical games on the spot, or doing a quick analysis of “Baby Shark” to see why it is so catchy, lessons never become dry or unmusical.

Around the age of seven, Joseph began playing by ear, learned to sight-read several years later, and eventually began accompanying soloists before college. After earning solo performance degrees at the University of Washington, he turned his full focus toward collaborative piano at the University of Texas at Austin, earning his second Masters in 2016. He is currently planning to graduate with a DMA in Collaborative Piano this December. Before leaving for Austin in 2014, Joseph discovered the joy of teaching as he gave private and group lessons on the east side. Upon returning to the area this summer, he has greatly enjoyed a renewed passion in helping others learn to play piano. When not teaching, he might be practicing, sailing on Lake Washington, flying model sailplanes, or drinking good coffee.