Born and raised in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Elyse Weakley grew up sheltered in the small and picturesque community of Truckee, California. There, she whiled away much of her childhood singing and dancing along to recordings and playing piano. Long time favorites range from Bob Marley to Bach, Miles Davis to Mozart, David Bowie to Debussy, and the Rolling Stones to Rachmaninoff to name a few.
Currently residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, Elyse is enjoying an active career as a performer and educator. Recent engagements include the University of California at Berkeley New Music Project Series performing K’asa, a chamber piece for piano and violin, with Karen Shinozaki of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, presenting the chamber works of composer George Hurd in concert, appearing frequently with innovative San Francisco based band Varona, and as assistant director and accompanist leading the Concord High Concert Choir to award-winning performances at the Boston Heritage Festival. Before relocating to the Bay Area, Elyse completed a Masters of Music in Piano Performance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in the culturally vibrant city of Winston-Salem studying with master pedagogues Clifton Matthews and Allison Gagnon and spent two summers at the Brevard Music Center as an apprentice vocal coach for the Janiec Opera Company under the direction of Andrew Campbell.
While pursuing her Bachelor of Arts in Music at Colorado College Elyse performed extensively as a soloist, studying piano with Susan Grace of the acclaimed piano duo Quattro Mani and flute with Paul Nagem, principal flute for the Colorado Springs Symphony and the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. Also, Elyse performed with diverse ensembles like the Collegium Musicum an early music vocal and instrumental group with whom she toured China and Taiwan in 2001. As a freshman, she auditioned successfully for the internationally recognized Bowed Piano Ensemble, an elite group of ten student, faculty and staff musicians exploring the leading edge of performance with sounds made directly on the strings of one grand piano which result in an orchestral array of tone colors, harmonies and rhythms. The ensemble has performed at world-renowned venues like the Sydney Opera House, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Town Hall, and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, performing works by contemporary composer (and ensemble founder) Stephen Scott. During her tenure they toured the West Coast and New England and recorded Entrada for BMI. In preparation for a piano concerto performance with the Chamber Orchestra Elyse was awarded a Venture Grant to travel to London for lessons with the renowned teacher Benjamin Kaplan. Following college, she moved to London for a year to continue studies with Professor Kaplan who currently teaches at the Royal Academy and on United States tours regularly conducted Master Classes at distinguished institutions across the nation including Juilliard in New York and the Peabody Institute in Maryland.