Piano Lessons with Elena W.

Elena W. is a composer, performer, and educator. She draws on a wide range of interdisciplinary influences to create deeply intense, personal, and multi-dimensional works via processes of intense collaboration with the intended performers. Her compositions have been described as “fundamentally dramatic" [Out to Lunch Records] and having an “expansive spirit” [Boston Musical Intelligencer], and have been performed by such luminaries as loadbang, JACK Quartet, & International Contemporary Ensemble.

Some of her musical projects include being one-half of the duo Beyond the Zero, as well as the founder, co-artistic director, and secretary of Der Gestank, a Boston-based Pierrot ensemble with whom she performs and for whom she regularly writes. Some past highlights include her second opera, The Little Red Hen, starring renowned Canadian soprano and Der Gestank President Rose Hegele. Some past performance highlights include singing Pierrot lunaire by Arnold Schoenberg with Der Gestank, as well as performing with musical figures as wide-ranging as Karita Mattila to John Wetton to Butch Trucks.

Elena’s approach to teaching is focused on tailoring lessons to help students achieve their individual musical goals. She is passionate about helping students develop their technique, navigate new ways of thinking and talking about music, and finding their own unique voices while having fun with the process. Her experience in music education spans over a decade of private instruction in piano of all genres, rock/jazz guitar, and voice both contemporary and operatic.

Elena earned her Masters of Music in Composition from the Peabody Institute at The Johns Hopkins University in 2025 studying with Felipe Lara. She earned her BM in Composition from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee studying with Felipe Lara, Tina Tallon, Curtis K. Hughes, and Marc McAneny.