Hungry Monk Music provides quality teaching instruction for all ages and all abilities. Our teaching staff includes some of the areas most experienced and qualified artists. Our staff hold degrees in music performance and/or music education. Lessons are set up by appointment. Times and fees vary.

Call to set up a lesson: 843-571-3857

Hazel Ketchum - Piano / Guitar / Banjo / Lute / Irish Drum /  Music For Young Children

Co-owner of Hungry Monk Music, Hazel holds degrees in Classical Guitar Performance from the University of Southern California. Hazel has taught music in SC public and private schools, at the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, and has been Artist-in-Residence at the Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Center in Ohio, among many other teaching posts. Hazel is a certified Music For Young Children teacher. Hazel is an active performer as a soloist and with her group The Hungry Monks.

John Holenko - Guitar / Mandolin / Banjo 

Co-owner of Hungry Monk Music, John holds degrees in Classical Guitar Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music and the University of Southern California. John has taught throughout the Charleston area at public and private schools, Charleston Southern University, and Creative Spark. John has several music books published by Mel Bay Publications. An active performer, John has played with The Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Na Fidleiri, and his group The Hungry Monks.

Wendy Tahara - Piano 

Southern California native Wendy began studying the piano at the age of seven. She received her B.M. in music from Indiana University, and has enjoyed a busy career as a ballet accompanist for various dance companies. Since moving to Charleston in 1999, Ms. Tahara has played for Charleston Ballet Theatre, the Charleston Children’s Chorus, and the Chamber Music Society of Charleston. She currently maintains an active teaching studio at Hungry Monk Music.

Pam Wiley - Violin / Viola 

Pamela Wiley holds degrees from Carleton College in Minnesota and The American University in Washington, D.C. For the past 30 years, she maintained a private studio and directed a performing Suzuki Violin Group in Harrisburg, PA. Ms. Wiley has written several articles for the National Suzuki Journal. She is currently a contracted member of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra and the Beaufort Symphony Orchestra.

Cindy Kearney - Music For Young Children / Piano 

Cindy began playing the piano and singing as a child.  After receiving a BA from Florida State University, she studied jazz as a postbaccalaureate at Georgia State University.  For the past 15 years, she has performed jazz, blues, and r&b throughout the Southeast.  She plays the piano, Hammond B-3 Organ, and sings.  Since relocating to Charleston, she balances being the mother of two young children, teaching music, and playing occasional gigs with her husband in a jazz combo.

John Wiley - Violin

John Wiley has a BA degree from Franklin and Marshall College and attended Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. He has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Westminster Choir College, The USAF Singing Sergeants, The Berkshire Boys’ Choir, The Washington National Cathedral Choir, The New York Philharmonic, the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra and most recently in the South Carolina area with the Beaufort Symphony Orchestra.

Terry Ryan - Guitar, Banjo, Bass

Terry began playing guitar at age 12. Terry has performed with Byron Berline, Dan Crary, and Mason Williams. Terry studied with Sam Dorsey at Norfolk State University and Michael Johnson at the University of Alabama, and has performed in master classes with David Russell and Olivier Chassain. He has released three recordings: “4:00 A.M. and Other Times”, “Potpourri”, a collection of classical, original, and easy listening instrumentals, and “Better Late Than Never”, a co production with his wife Lauretta that includes 10 original songs. Terry is a graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham

Eszter Ablonczy - Piano

Eszter grew up in Hungary in a musical environment, surrounded with Kodály’s teaching method. She started taking piano and solfege lessons at age 5. After finishing the Bartók Conservatory as a piano major she went on studying at the Liszt Academy in Budapest where she received her BA in Piano  Pedagogy. She came to the US with her husband for his career as a biophysicist. Since in Charleston, Eszter has been a piano teacher at Hungry Monk and at her own home studio, accompanist for Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim synagogue, Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary and West Ashley Montessori School. As a volunteer she directed the children’s choir of First Scots Presbyterian Church for four years.

Hungry Monk Music is also the home of

The Drake School of Irish Dance

Brent Wood teaches Irish Dance at Hungry Monk Music and throughout the Southeast. Brent’s students are competition winners both nationally and internationally.

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Music For Young Children

is a classroom program for student and parent. Using the keyboard as their primary instrument, students learn not only piano skills, but also basic music concepts: note recognition, rhythm, singing, and music theory.

There are five age-appropriate beginning levels:

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2 and 3 year olds can begin with Sunrise

3 and 4 year olds begin as Sunshines

5 and 6 year olds begin as Sunbeams

7 and 8 year olds begin as Moonbeams

The fourth level, Music Your Best Choice, is a two-year

program for teens and adults.

Jennifer Goldsmith Morlan - Voice

Soprano Jennifer Goldsmith Morlan received her Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from Shenandoah University. She has performed the role of Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute at Theater Döbeln and Freiberg, Germany.  Jennifer continued her Master of Music studies with Patricia Craig at New England Conservatory. Mrs. Morlan's concert credits include Porgy and Bess in concert with Mittelsächsische Philharmonie and The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Britten's Hymn to St. Cecilia and Ceremony of Carols, Mozart's Regina Coeli, Stravinsky Mass, Poulenc Gloria, Schubert Mass in G, Vivaldi Magnificat, and Mahler's Symphony no. 4.  Jennifer appears on stage and in concert in the Charleston area.

Branden Abushanab - Bass 

Branden is a trained musician who has been studying the art of
upright and electric bass for most of his life. He has studied with some of the finest bass instructors in the Greenville, SC area: he was selected to be apart of the acclaimed music program at the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, and has since been continuously involved with numerous jazz combos. While Branden is an instructor trained to suit the needs of  any beginning musician, his recent studies have focused on the formation of timbre (tone color), allowing him to further understand what makes individual musicians stand out with a particular style and personality. He has been the driving force behind many workshops in public schools presenting the fundamentals of sound through solo performance.

Damian Kremer - Cello

Cellist Damian Kremer received degrees from Michigan State, Western Illinois, and Boston Universities.  Damian has performed around the world as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician including as Principal Cellist with the Chautauqua Festival Orchestra, the Mozarteum Chamber Orchestra of Boston, and the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, and has also been a member of the New World Symphony, the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon, Portugal, the Honolulu Symphony, and the Savannah Symphony. A cellist in the Charleston Symphony Orchestra since 1997, Mr. Kremer has also been on the faculty of the College of Charleston.

Michael Geezil - Drums, Guitar, Bass, Piano

Michael brings a wide variety of teaching experience to Hungry Monk Music. After studies at Berklee School of Music, Michael taught students from Kindergarten through High School and beyond. Michael has taught classes in composition, recording arts, and performance.