"Hello, Everyone! I was one of Mrs. C’s earlier students and I was also Amanda’s childhood duet partner (see picture with Amanda circa 1979). After graduating from high school, I attended the University of Michigan where I majored in Political Science. After college, I went to Boston College Law School and graduated in 1998. I am currently an attorney in Boston at a firm which specializes in bankruptcy law and commercial litigation. I live in Andover, Massachusetts (home to Phillips Academy) with my husband, Gene, our son, Max, and our dog, Zack. I have not played the piano since college, but I think that will change as my son gets older. I can only hope that I can find a teacher for Max who is as wonderful and as dedicated as Mrs. C!

" American collaborative pianist Kayo Iwama has concertized extensively with singers throughout North America, Europe and Japan and has performed in some of the most prestigous venues including the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, the Kennedy Center, Tokyo’s Yamaha Hall and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. The Washington Post has called her a pianist “with unusual skill and sensitivty to the music and the singer” and the Boston Globe has praised her “virtuoso accompaniment…super-saturated with gorgeous colors”. She was formerly on the faculties of the Hartt School of Music, the New England Conservatory of Music and Boston Conservatory. For the past ten years she has taught at the Tanglewood Music Center, where she is also the coordinator of the opera and vocal studies programs. There she has worked with some of today’s most exciting young singers and collaborative pianists, and assisted Maestros Stefan Asbury, Seiji Ozawa and Robert Spano in major operatic and concert productions. Her teaching has also taken her to some of the foremost universities of the United States to give master classes and performance/demonstrations. A former resident of the Boston area, she was a frequent performer on WGBH radio, and has performed with such groups as the Handel and Haydn Society and Emmanuel Music. In addition she was the pianist and music director of the critically acclaimed Cantata Singers Chamber Series, programs devoted to rarely-heard works of art song and vocal chamber music. This fall she became the Associate Director of the Vocal Arts Program at the Bard College Conservatory, under the artistic direction of soprano Dawn Upshaw.

Miss Iwama earned a Bachelor of Music degree at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and her Master’s at the State University of New York at Stony Brook where she studied with Gilbert Kalish. She also attended the Salzburg Music Festival, the Banff Music Center, the Music Academy of the West and the Tanglewood Music Center, where she worked with such artists as Margo Garrett, Martin Isepp, Graham Johnson, Martin Katz and Erik Werba. She has served previously on the music staffs of the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Miss Iwama can be heard on CD on the Well-Tempered label, with baritone Christópheren Nomura in Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, and on two ISMM discs devoted to French mélodies and the songs of Schumann with tenor Ingul Ivan Oak. She is married to pianist Frank Corliss and has two children."           

"Lyric mezzo soprano Misa Ann Iwama is known as a musician of exceptional scope. She has performed on opera and concert stages throughout the United States, and appeared on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning revival of The King & I. Her artistry and musicianship have been critically acclaimed, and the Boston Globe wrote that “she has the gift of utter conviction in everything she does."

"Ms. Iwama's orchestra and oratorio engagements include the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (Mozart’s Requiem, under the direction of Zdenek Macal at the NJ Performing Arts Center), the New York Choral Society (Vaughan Williams' G minor Mass) the Colorado Symphony Orchestra (Gilbert and Sullivan’s Gondoliers), the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Miami Symphony Orchestra, and the Miami Chamber Symphony. She has also appeared in New York as the soloist in Mozart’s Missa Brevis in B-Flat and the Cesar Franck Messe á 3 Voix en A-Majeur, and in Honegger's Le Roi David and Poulenc's Bal Masqué."

"Misa Ann Iwama was born with perfect pitch and is an avid performer of contemporary music. She appeared at Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall as part of its Festival of Contemporary Music. She also performed in Boston with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project to rave reviews. She was featured in a recording of the opera Grifflekin by Lukas Foss, which is distributed on the Chandos Records label. Recently, She also sang in a recording of a world premiere of "Sundry Notes" by Joshua Rosenblum for Albany Records. Her Lincoln Center debut came as the mezzo soprano soloist in Copland’s In the Beginning with the National Chorale. With the Omni Ensemble she has performed Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Ravel's Chansons Madécasses. Other repertoire which she has performed as a soloist include Berio's Folk Songs, Berg's Altenberg Lieder, and Corigliano's Fern Hill at venues that include Harvard University, Underground Composers, and public television."

"Opera companies with which she has performed include Opera Carolina (Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, and Pitti-Sing in The Mikado), Central City Opera (Stephano in Roméo et Juliette and Javotte in Manon), and Glimmerglass Opera (Paul Bunyan). She also toured nationwide with the New York City Opera National Company (La Traviata). Ms. Iwama has appeared with Florida Grand Opera in Manon Lescaut, as well as in the American premiere of Cristoforo Colombo. In addition, she was Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro for Piedmont Opera, Zerlina in Don Giovanni with the Bronx Opera, and sang Annina for the Opera Festival of New Jersey in its production of La Traviata."

"Yumi is the third Iwama daughter who studied with Mrs. Clarfield. She remembers multi-colored markings in her piano books, sweaty palms during workshops and recitals, and playing the world premier of "Amanda's Caprice" at the barefooted Mr. Collier's home. She also fondly remembers babysitting Amanda when she was "just two and a half years old" (Amanda's own words). She nominates her as one of the cutest toddlers of all time.

"Athough not having studied piano since high school, music continues to be a big part of her life. She sang in theatrical productions throughout the US in shows such as "A Christmas Carol" at Syracuse Stage, "The King and I" at Sacramento Music Circus, and "Follies" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" at East West Players in Los Angeles.

"Other acting credits include "The New Swiss Family Robinson", "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman", "Once and Again", "Diagnosis Murder" as well as several national commercials including Toyota, Southwest Airlines, Toys R Us, ADT, and one recently for Botox. How time flies.

"Yumi currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, Brian Mulligan - an actor as well as a drama teacher at Crossroads School, and her twins, Kieran and Clara. On occasion she plays the piano on the digital Yamaha grand she won on Hollywood Squares.

"Amanda Clarfield Newell is busy raising her two kids (see Grandma Ingie’s pictures), teaching General Music in Manalapan (just got tenure – woo hoo!), working on her Masters in Music Education at Westminster, teaching private piano and in her free time (ha ha) started a business making custom hairbows for little girls (visit us at www.lizzieleaveins.biz) .

" Hello everyone! I have studied with Mrs. Clarfield for eight wonderful years. I am now a sophomore at Princeton University majoring in Operations Research & Financial Engineering. Although I had never heard of the subject prior to entering Princeton (and, to my chagrin at the time, realized that nobody seemed to know what it was either!), I love the study of probability, stochastics, and finance. I hope to pursue an MBA in finance and/or a Ph.D in Operations Research. Life has been great this past year; I've learned a lot and made a lot of friends. Though I was pretty busy this year, I managed to find a little time to play piano to balance my crazy days.

I missed performance so much that I decided to take a Beethoven class this semester. I know, I know. Why not Chopin? Or Liszt? Maybe if I beg enough, they'll open a course for me next year! I still remember those days when Mrs. Clarfield would put beanie babies on my shoulder during a sedate Chopin nocturne to keep me from moving too much! I have never had a teacher more energetic, more passionate, and more inspiring than Mrs. Clarfield. To all the present students of Mrs. Clarfield -- keep up the good work! You are truly lucky to have Mrs. Clarfield as your teacher.

I would love to hear from everyone from the studio; feel free to email me.              

"I had the pleasure and honor of studying with Mrs. Clarfield during high school, when I first moved to New Jersey from Canada. I am now an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, and am thinking of majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Music. At college, I take private piano lessons with Sally Pinkas and try to join as many chamber groups as my crammed schedule allows. I also love languages. I speak fluent French and I took Italian last year and am going to Rome this winter on a Language Study Abroad program. My future goals include going to optometry school, and keeping music in my life forever."               

"2010 has been a big year--Bought a house, graduated from law school, took the bar, passed the bar, had a cat adopt us, and got married! Currently living in Wilmington, Delaware with my new husband and cat. Life is good. Hope all is well with everyone!"

"Twenty-year-old pianist, Pauline Yang, began her piano studies at the age of five. While a student of Ingrid Clarfield, she won her first international piano competition at the age of seven in Washington, DC. In March of 1998, at the age of eleven, Ms. Yang made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in a performance of the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Academy of Music as a result of winning the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition. In the same month, Pauline made her solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall.

While a student at the Juilliard School, Ms. Yang won both the Pre-College’s concerto competition and Gina Bachauer Memorial Scholarship Competition in her first year. Her prizes included a full scholarship for her studies at Juilliard, as well as a solo appearance with the Pre-College Chamber Orchestra at the Juilliard Theater. Other accolades include the 1999 New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Award, third prize in the 2000 Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition in Salt Lake City, first prize in the 2002 Stravinsky Awards International Piano Competition, first prize in the 2004 Lennox International Young Artists Competition in Texas, and first prize in the 2006 Klaviersommerfest Competition in Germany.

Ms. Yang has performed as soloist with the Plainfield Symphony, Battleground Arts Center Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Juilliard Pre-College Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Greater Newark Youth Orchestra, New Jersey Youth Festival Orchestra, Tacoma Youth Symphony (WA), Reading Symphony (PA), Ridgefield Symphony (CT), and Dallas-Richardson Symphony (TX), and most recently, the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra at the new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. Pauline has also performed solo recitals at the Vancouver Academy of Music in British Columbia, the Frederic Chopin State School of Music in Poland, and the historic Ruïnekerk in Holland to a sell-out crowd. She has also performed several gala concerts at the San Lorenzo Castle in Cremona, Italy, as well as on National Public Radio’s “From the Top” Young Artists Showcase at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater. Ms. Yang was invited by the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation to perform at the 22nd European Piano Teachers Association International Conference at Franz Liszt Music Academy’s Grand Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary. In 2006, she was invited to perform at Australia’s prestigious Queensland Expatriate Awards Gala, hosted by the Deputy Premier of Queensland. Pauline was also a scholarship student and performer at various international music festivals, including the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, Casalmaggiore Festival in Italy, Morningside Music Bridge in Calgary, Orford Academy in Quebec, Gold Country Piano Institute in California, the Warsaw Piano Workshop in Poland, the International Holland Music Sessions in The Netherlands, Sarasota International Music Festival in Florida, and the Klaviersommerfest in Germany.

Pauline is honored to be an Ambassador of Music for ‘Music in Me,’ a non-profit organization associated with the United Nations™ (UNESCO and UNRWA) and the International Music Council, that reaches children “who would otherwise be deprived of music due to war and poverty” in the Middle East, namely Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. Ms. Yang donates her time and fees when performing benefit recitals on behalf of Music in Me.

She is also an active chamber musician and has performed in masterclasses with members of the Shanghai Quartet, Takacs Quartet, and Eroica Trio. A founding member of the Pegasus Piano Trio, the winner of the 2007 USC Chamber Music Prize, the Trio has performed at USC’s Chamber Music Marathon in Los Angeles, the South Pasadena Chamber Music Society Concert Series, the Nevada City Composers Cooperative Concert Series, and the Music in the Mountains Festival’s Wet Ink Concert Series in northern California. In August 2007, the Pegasus Trio performed a series of concerts at the Rencontres Franco-Américaines de Musique de Chambre in France as well as the Rio International Cello Encounter in Brazil. They have also had the honor of having several commissioned pieces written for them by American composers, Mark Vance and William Jay Sydeman. Pauline’s chamber music recordings have been broadcast on New York City’s WQXR and Los Angeles’ KUSC classical music radio stations.

Ms. Yang graduated from East Brunswick High School (NJ) in June 2005, where she was the Secretary General of the nationally-acclaimed Model United Nations team, a member of both the National Honor Society and the National Italian Honor Society, a member of the varsity swim team, an AP Scholar and an Edward J. Bloustein Distinguished Scholar. As an active member of her school’s Institute of Political and Legal Education team, she won both a state and national championship in the 2005 “We the People: The Citizen and Constitution” competition in New Jersey and Washington, DC, respectively.

Pauline has studied for several years with Lee Kum-Sing in Vancouver and Susan Starr in Philadelphia. She is currently studying with world-renowned pianist, John Perry, at the University of Southern California, where she is double-majoring in piano performance and political science. She has served as the student assistant coach for USC’s Varsity Swim Team and is a contributing member of a groundbreaking medical anthropology and occupational therapy research project funded by a $2.4M grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) at USC’s Keck School of Medicine. Ms. Yang has been honored for her academic achievements by Phi Kappa Phi, Alpha Lambda Delta, and Golden Key International Honor Society. She was named the 2006 USC Mortar Board Torch & Tassel Scholar, selected from the entire sophomore class “for outstanding scholarship, leadership, and service” and was also awarded the 2007 USC Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics Summer Fellowship. Consequently, Ms. Yang interned with her Congressman, Representative Rush Holt (NJ-12th), at Capitol Hill in Washington, DC this past summer. She will be interning with Senator Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Exploratory Committee in New York City this winter.

"Emiko is currently enrolled in The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division and studies there as a full-tuition scholarship recipient, having won its Bachauer Scholarship Competition.  Emiko studies piano performance with Julian Martin.  Before attending Juilliard, Emiko studied piano for approximately 8 years with Ingrid Jacobson Clarfield, Professor of Piano and Coordinator of the Piano Department at Westminster Choir College of Rider University.  Emiko is eternally grateful to Mrs. C for her piano performance instruction, love and steadfast support.

Born in 1991, Emiko began her piano studies at the age of six.  At the age of ten, Emiko made her piano concerto debut with the New Sussex Symphony as a result of having won the New Jersey Music Teachers Association (“NJMTA”) concerto competition.  At the age of eleven, she won First Prize in the 18th International Young Artist Pianist Competition, held in Washington, D.C.  Emiko has also had solo appearances with the Westfield Symphony and the Manalapan Battleground Symphony as a winner of the NJMTA Concerto Competition and the 9th Annual Concerto Competition for Young Artists, respectively.

Recently, Emiko won the Open Class (under age 25) in the 2009 Princeton Festival Piano Competition, held in Taplin Auditorium, at Princeton University.  In addition to winning the top age category, Emiko was also awarded The Richard L. Tang Yuk Award for overall best performance among the winners of all five age groups.

Emiko was also awarded First Place in the top age group in the 2009 Steinway Society Piano Competition (Greater Princeton, NJ).  She was a previous winner of that competition in 2001.  Also, in 2009, she won Third Prize in the 5 Towns Music & Art Foundation Young Musician Competition (open to pianists from 17-to-28 years of age), held in Hewlett, NY.

In 2008, Emiko was a prize winner at the Fourth Julia Crane International Piano Competition in Potsdam, NY.  Also, in 2008, she won First Prize Ensemble (piano for four hands), with Ms. Xiaopei Xu, at The New York Piano Competition, presented by The Stecher and Horowitz Foundation.  Emiko was the New Jersey State Winner of the Music Teachers National Association’s Performance Competition in both the Senior Division and the Junior Division (in 2006 and 2005, respectively). 

Emiko has received numerous top honors in past NJMTA Annual Auditions and Young Artists’ Competitions.  She has participated and performed in Master Classes for acclaimed artist-pedagogues, including Marc Durand at the 2009 Banff Summer Arts Festival in Alberta, Canada, the 2009 Orford Festival in Quebec, Canada and at the 9th Annual International Piano Festival of Gijon, Spain, in 2008; Andre-Michel Schub (past Van Cliburn winner), at The New York Piano Competition; and, Joseph Kalichstein and Jerome Lowenthal, both of The Juilliard School.  Emiko has performed at Weill Recital Hall (at Carnegie Hall), Merkin Concert Hall and Alice Tully Hall, all in New York City.  She has also performed in Japan and Spain.  As a member of several chamber ensembles, Emiko has performed in Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Paul Hall and Morse Hall at The Juilliard School.

For the benefit of senior citizens, Emiko has both organized and performed at numerous concerts at managed care facilities in New Jersey.  She has also performed at Patriots Theatre at the Trenton War Memorial to benefit the Hope for Henry Foundation and also played at another venue to benefit that foundation.

Emiko performed for and was interviewed by Cable Channel 27 & 3 (West Windsor and Plainsboro, NJ television programming), which was broadcast multiple times, on a daily basis, for several months, in 2008.  Emiko’s performance and interview during the 2008 Julia Crane International Piano Competition was recorded as part of a documentary entitled “Piano Forte: The Julia Crane International Piano Competition” that was televised on WPBS in upstate New York in April, 2009.  A forthcoming documentary of the 2008 New York Piano Competition, during which Emiko performed and was interviewed, is also expected to be televised on American Public Television in more than 100 cities around the United States, in 2009.

Jon (Psychology '99), Jen (Religion '01) and Jeff (Math '04) all graduated from Princeton University.

Jon, his wife Jasmin and two cats, recently moved to Illinois where he is attending law school after he finished his Masters degree in Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins. He still loves all things related to computers.

Jen got married in June '06 to Andy after meeting at Princeton and dating for five years. She received her Masters in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and is currently practicing with her mother, and her husband is an orthopedic surgery resident. They have two dogs and are hoping to start a family of over-achieving musical children in the near future.

Jeff has been trying out various professions since he graduated. He spent some time at the University of Texas at Austin pursuing his Masters in Performing Arts for cello, then worked at a trading firm in Manhattan while playing with various choral and orchestral groups in NJ. He is now in the Masters program for Operations Research and Finance at Princeton University. He plays piano and cello often at home and has picked up other hobbies such as rock climbing, cycling and guitar.

"My son, Alex, was born at the end of March and since then, I've been enjoying an extended maternity leave. He is a happy chubby boy and we are thrilled to have him. We are currently living in Houston where my husband, Andy, is an orthopedic trauma fellow. Alex has already started "playing" the piano. He loves banging on the keys loudly. Maybe he has a future playing modern music."

Christine McLeavey
(Princeton University '01)

I'm now at Stanford, studying Neuroscience & doing a Masters in Medicine. I won the concerto competition & will be performing with the orchestra probably this November (either Prok 3 or Chopin 1, I haven't decided yet). I graduated Juilliard in '04 with my masters, and stayed around NYC for a while freelancing (probably most interesting is I was rehearsal pianist for the NY Phil at one point, and play house concerts for Ms. Whitney - head of the family that owns the art museum). I won the Coup de Couer de Bayer Cropscience prize in the Lyon International Chamber Music Competition in '06, and was on French TV and Radio France for that. I also attended Tanglewood in '04 and Banff Keyboard Festival in '06 and '07.

*note from IC -- Christine graduated as Valedictorian Majoring in Physics with Certificates in Engineering and Piano Performance

Hi! My name is Raymond Zhang, and I’m 13 years old! I was a student of Ms. Clarfield for four fantastic years, during which Ms. Clarfield was just a fabulous piano teacher. Last year I had to say goodbye to Ms. Clarfield (sniff…) and move to Seattle, Washington, where I am now part of the Early Entrance Program at the University of Washington. (I can’t believe I’m a freshman in college now!) I plan to major in Computer Sciences (otherwise known as Information Technologies), and Medicine. I also hope to keep the piano in my life by minoring (or maybe even majoring) in Music. Here in Seattle, I have piano lessons with Mr. Schultz, who is a wonderful teacher. That’s about it about me!

P.S. And to everybody back in Princeton, especially dear Ms. Clarfield, her husband, and her studio: “Hi! Hope you guys are doing well, and for the students, keep practicing!”

I had the honor and great fortune of studying with Mrs. Clarfield for about 5 years in the early 90's during my middle school / high school years. I have wonderful memories of video-taped lessons, colorful markings all over my music, countless number of competitions, and performing at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, all thanks to Mrs. Clarfield. I truly believe it was because of Mrs. Clarfield that I got an Ivy League education. All of my college essays were about piano, and I couldn't have gotten as far as I did without Mrs. Clarfield. I went to Cornell University and received my Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering. I started off my career at Motorola and later worked for various software companies as a project manager / business analyst / systems engineer.

I am currently married with two children, Aidan and Kyle. I didn't play the piano much after I went to college until I started teaching my kids piano a couple of years ago in Phoenix, AZ. Then I realized how hard it was to teach your own children and I wished I had Mrs. Clarfield around to help me! They currently study with another teacher and I can share some of the techniques that Mrs. Clarfield instilled in me to help them practice.

We recently moved to NYC and we hope to reconnect with Mrs. Clarfield and take the children to one of her performances/recitals!