EDUCATION
Stephanie and her band have years of experience presenting workshops and masterclasses to groups of all ages. The engaging, interactive format includes performance, discussion, and audience participation. We’ve taught at colleges (Columbia University, Smith College, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts), high schools (Horace Mann School, Packer Collegiate) and cultural centers (China Institute of America) throughout the US, Canada, Asia, and more. Stephanie was the 2024-25 Oscar Peterson Artist-in-Residence at York University in Toronto Canada. All workshops are customized for the specific situation and audience.
Our most frequently-given workshop for all ages focuses on blending Asian culture with jazz; it incorporates our most widely-performed show with material from Asymptote, Comfort Girl, American Songbook classics, jazz standards, and pop songs.
Past workshop topics:
-Composing, arranging, songwriting
-Incorporating cultural and historical influences into music, music as social activism
-Introduction to Asian culture, traditional instruments, erhu demonstration
-Global Sounds - introduction to Chinese, Taiwanese folk music, how they can relate to jazz tradition
-Improvisation, composing, playing as a band, developing a personal artistic voice
-Bandleading, entrepreneurship, building sustainable artistic practices
-Women in music, female/AAPI representation in arts
Specialized Workshops
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION WORKSHOPS - Jazz Leadership
Throughout history and across the globe, music has been at the center of community building. Research continues to demonstrate the unique power of music, and jazz in particular, to make meaning together at a level that transcends language. These unique programs unpack the nuances of communication and creative collaboration through an exploration of improvisational jazz.
We’ve performed for many years as guest artists for executive education workshops on leadership and jazz with the Columbia University Business School, where audiences have included CEO’s of publicly-traded international companies. These unique programs unpack the nuances of communication and creative collaboration through an exploration of improvisational jazz. We relate playing in a band to working in a professional setting. This interactive, entertaining, and practical session—part workshop, performance, and conversation— is perfect for groups of all kinds, from business meetings to hospital teams, education to social service, large organizations to intimate gatherings.
Has been given at Columbia University, Michiko Studios, and at corporate retreats in the NE region, in both English and Mandarin. Click here for more info.
INTERSECTIONS of MATH and MUSIC
Horace Mann School, NY
Steph was a mathematics major at Columbia University and tutored math to K--college students for 12+ years
An interactive discussion on the intersections between music and math, with a focus on harmonic structure, this session gives an introduction to set theory and tone rows, and the use of mathematics as a source of inspiration for composers in the past. We discuss how knots, braids, and other mathematical concepts form the musical underpinnings of my album Prime Knot. We give an introduction to musical set theory, tone rows, and relate musical "operations" to mathematical "formulas”. Participants compose their own pieces; no math/music background required.
Has been given to students at: Horace Mann School, Packer Collegiate, Bespoke Education, NY
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT for Musicians
Stephanie spoke on a panel at the 2023 national Chamber Music America conference. Example lecture:
Building Funder and Artists Relationships - Learn how to build relationships and successfully apply for grants that support tours, residencies, recording, compositions, and more. Communication and dialogue can help us co-create ways to serve audiences and the communities we work in.
Stephanie moderated a panel on Careers in Arts and Media at the 2023 OCA (Overseas Chinese Association) National Conference:
Presentation on AAPI empowerment/careers in the arts, female and AAPI representation in media
Other topics available
COMFORT GIRL EDUCATIONAL COMPANION WORKSHOP (usually done in conjunction with full performance or excerpts from Comfort Girl)
This can be customized to emphasize various topics, including: history of “comfort women”, musical inspiration/creation of the piece, incorporation of survivor testimony, comfort women in arts and media today, etc. depending on the audience. It can be given by Stephanie alone or with the band, and/or with historians/music professors/other groups.
In the past we have done masterclasses in conjunction with a school’s history department and music departments, so the format might include a history professor teaching about the history, a music professor talking about the music, and Steph/the band presenting info about the piece (inspiration behind piece, how to incorporate testimony, playing excerpts of recordings or live demonstration, etc). Audience Q&A is a big component of this workshop.
Example online panel/presentation done with a group at Yale University on "Representation of Comfort Women in Media and Art" from 2020: https://youtu.be/ckuwx5kl1-k
More resources http://www.stephaniechoumusic.com/learnmorecomfortwomen
Has been given at: Horace Mann School, Yale University, Museum of Chinese in America (NYC)
Individually, band members each have different specialties and can lead workshops focused on various topics.
We’d love to create workshops that focus on what is the best for the audience, and will customize any workshop to incorporate the specific audience members in an interactive way.