CHRISTINA TIO

Originally from Malaysia, Christina Tio attended the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in the United Kingdom to study piano where she earned her Performing Diploma, a Teaching Diploma, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the Birmingham City University. She continued on to complete her Masters degree in Piano Performance at the University of Reading, where she studied with Frank Wibaut from the Royal Academy of Music, London. Her mentors over the years also include Malcolm Wilson and Alison Pottinger and she has participated in master classes by Peter Donohoe, Anne Queffelec, Renna Kallaway, Christine Faron, Gordon Fergus-Thompson, Anthony Saunders, Joseph Weingarten and Venessa Latarche. Meanwhile, she was a regular artist for Birmingham Conservatoire Concert Series as soloist and accompanist, and was the winner of the prestigious BMI Piano competition. Soon after, Christina took a turn in her music studies. She began her musicological research on a scholarship with Nicholas Cook; under whose guidance, she completed her PhD in Musicology at the University of Southampton.

While completing her doctoral dissertation, Christina assumed the position of lecturer at Universiti Putra Malaysia, and taught there for two years. Her students performed successful recitals, and completed musicological papers that advanced them to graduate programs at universities in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States. A period of busy freelancing teaching schedule followed, as she taught and conducted seminars as a guest lecturer at music colleges and major universities in Kuala Lumpur, including the University of Malaya, the National Arts Academy, Sedaya International University College and the Malaysian Institute of Arts. She taught applied piano, courses in music history, music theory and supervised graduate and undergraduate degree projects. From March 2004, Christina resumed a full-time faculty position, this time as a senior lecturer at the Music Department of Universiti Teknologi Mara. She left Malaysia in April 2005 to the United States to join her husband who is working in Chicago. As a dedicated music educator, Christina maintains a studio wherever she resides, as a fulfillment of her great passion for music teaching.

Christina has taken Suzuki coursework and registered book trainings with Doris Koppelman, Rita Hauck, Mary Craig Powell and Caroline Fraser and Fay Adams. Passionate about the Suzuki philosophy, she considers parent education and developing musicality her forte. She enjoys a thriving studio characterized by excellence and joy, where music making is appreciated as a lifelong endeavor. Her students frequently receive awards at festivals and competitions, including appearance at Carnegie Hall. Currently, she holds a Suzuki Piano faculty position at the Music Institute of Chicago, and lives in Chicago with her husband and son.