Chris Soll
Piano, Flute, Theory

Chris has been teaching at Linton-Milano Music since 1991 and maintains over 70 weekly students of all ages and levels. She has been playing music for over 30 years and she has a Master of Music - Theory and Composition, from ASU and a Bachelor of Science in Music - Scoring & Arranging, from the University of Colorado at Denver. She graduated with honors from CU Denver and was nominated as a member of the National Music Honor Society, Pi Kappa Lambda, while at ASU.

Chris holds two recitals per year and encourages students to participate in Linton-Milano Music's Annual Awards Music Festival. Her goal is to teach students to become "musically literate" so that they understand theory, technique, and musical interpretation and are, ultimately, able to read music fluently and expressively. Several of her students have gone on to become professional music teachers themselves.

In addition to teaching, Chris plays professionally at church and private engagements.

Richard Wall
Piano, Voice, Violin, Viola, Theory and Composition

Richard has a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Music Theory and Composition, with a theory emphasis, from ASU. He studied piano with Dr. John Metz, Dr. Hamilton Tescalaro, group piano with Dr. Caio Pagano, and theory with Dr. Ellon Carpenter. His undergraduate thesis was entitled: “Tonal progression and retrogression in Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von Der Erde, “Der Abschied.” Richard is also a DJ with a former residency with La Rogue at Barcelonas in Scottsdale. He has maintained over 60 students for the past 5 years.

Richard is now doing professional recordings - a great idea for the holidays or for keepsake recordings!

Trisha Wright
Piano, Voice

Trisha was earning money as a composer and accompanist before she ever had a lesson. She taught herself to play the organ in church, played the oboe for 8 years, was on the drum line in high school, was in the jazz band, symphony and choirs - all with no formal training. When she started college, she continued pursuing her love of music as a Choral Education major. She graduated in December of 2009 from Ottawa University with a degree in Secondary Choral Music Education. Her compositions have been performed in churches and by choirs at Mesa Community College.

Trisha has been teaching piano, voice,and beginning oboe since 2002. Something Trisha is really proud of is her ability to help budding pianists expand their improvisation and accompanist abilities. She also loves teaching young singers the importance of classical training in order to prolong longevity of the vocal instrument. She moonlights as a vocal soloist and/or pianist for weddings, funerals, and private parties. She also enjoys hosting opera nights and composer nights for students and fellow musicians.

Trisha plans on continuing her education with a Masters and Doctorate degree in the future.

Trisha also enjoys making costume music jewelry that can be purchased at Linton-Milano!

Melinda Pekrul
Voice, Piano

Melinda Pekrul has a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Vocal Performance from Arizona State University. She has studied voice for 10 years and has been teaching since 2003. Her instructors include Linda Spevecek (Choral Composer), Darlene Kliewer-Britton (ASU Faculty, and Claudia Kennedy (current vocal teacher).

Melinda has been a part of many local choral ensembles. She has performed as a soloist in these ensembles and continues to perform in local churches for such events as weddings, funerals and holiday concerts.

Melinda has an enthusiasm for teaching, and loves to see her students progress in vocal quality and performance.

Emily Williams has a Bachelor’s of Music Degree in Vocal performance from Arizona State University and a Master’s of Music Degree in Vocal Performance from Brigham Young University. Performance credits include Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Miss Todd in The Old Maid and the Thief and The Duchess in The Gondoliers.

She has been teaching voice lessons since 2002 and more recently has begun teaching piano and guitar students.

Emily enjoys teaching healthy vocal techniques in any style (classical, jazz, pop, musical theatre) and loves helping students of all ages progress with their vocal goals. She hopes all of her students learn to enjoy and appreciate music as she has.

Tony has been an accordion instructor since 1969. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Music Composition from California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles. He was an active member of the Accordion Federation of North America and is currently a member of the Arizona Accordion Club.

Tony has written, arranged and performed music since childhood. His accordion arrangements have been used in schools across the U.S. One of his many compositions was included as a required competition piece at the annual AFNA Music Festival. As a performer, he has traveled from coast to coast. He has performed with various nationally known recording artists and in prestigious venues in New York and Los Angeles.

As a teacher, his goal is to facilitate musical excellence and honesty. Tony has taught at Linton-Milano Music since 1992.

Diana Noble
Piano, Voice, Violin

Diana has been teaching for over 18 years. She teaches, voice, violin, and piano. She is well-versed and has performed in many venues. Her experience includes opera, broadway musicals, live bands, studio recording, orchestras, ensembles, etc.

Patience and precision are her strengths in teaching. She works exceptionally well with youth and enjoys the creative learning process of teaching one-on-one. She is currently finishing her BA in music education.

Susan has taught private voice and piano lessons since 2002. She herself began taking piano lessons at age 7 and voice at age 11 totaling 11 years of private piano training and 14 years of private voice. In 2006 she received her B.A. in Music Education and recently completed her Masters in Music with an emphasis on Vocal Performance at Brigham Young University.

Susan is an accomplished piano player and singer. She worked professionally as an accompanist for the Mesa School District and as a piano player/singer at numerous events including weddings, private parties and community shows and concerts. She was a choral assistant at Heritage Academy, served a year as K-2 music teacher at Mesa Arts Academy and student taught as well as was hired as a choral assistant at Taylor Junior High. She also conducted the Mesa Youth Choir and was one of the founding directors for the nationally recognized show choir LIGHT. In her study at BYU she performed the lead role Rosalinde in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, as well as studied and performed excerpts from Carmen, La Traviata, and Der Freischütz. Alongside her passion for opera, she loves to sing, study, perform and teach Broadway, Pop, Jazz and Rock vocal styles.

Susan loves working with all ages to reach their musical goals, especially children. One of her greatest honors was being selected to judge the 2005 Kids USA National Pageant in Las Vegas. Her enthusiasm for both music and teaching makes her a great addition to the Milano’s teaching staff.

Robert grew up singing and performing in shows and concerts in Mesa, AZ. He participated in several regionals' and state honor choirs in high school. Although largely untrained, he sucessfully coached several friends in school that wanted to improve their singing ability.
After returning to the states from Brazil, he landed a role as Papageno in CGCC's Magic Flute although never having any prior voice lessons! He continued on to receive a full ride talent scholorship at ASU and receive his bachelors' degree in Vocal Performance there. He performed in operas such as The Elixir of Love, and Ghost Voices. He was selected several times as a Bass/baritone soloist for many  ASU concerts at Gammage such as Hayden's creation, and Handel's Messiah, and was usually the only undergrad student performing along with other soloists who were Masters level or beyond.

Besides singing at weddings, funerals, parties and corporate events, he has shared his expertise as voice faculty at CGCC and a vocal coach at Mesquite high School. He has enjoyed working with students of all ages in teaching piano skills and vocal pedagogy for several years now.

For students who like to compose, Robert teaches his students how to formulate their own compositions with melody, voicing and appropriate chord progressions.

Robert does exceptionally well working with voice and piano students that have special circumstances such as autism, aspergers, and schizophrenia. His patient and loving manner helps these students continue to progress in their musical ambitions.

Master William Lewis Young III A.A., B.A., M.A.

Teaching experience: Mr. Young began teaching private piano lessons in 1972. In 1973 he taught piano at Gahanna Music Center and has been teaching piano and electronic keyboard at Linton Milano's Music continuously since 1988. He has taught music in Mesa and Tempe Public Schools for 10 years. He has served for 25 years as a piano adjudicator and professional pianist. He is a certified teacher and a certified college professor teaching at: Rio Salado Community College, Mesa Community College, Vanderbilt University and Ohio State University. He is a certified teacher of the Scott Huston Creative Piano/Keyboard Technique also known as the creative lightning fast piano teaching technique.

Piano studies: Elsie Zellers Private Lessons 3 years; Janet Pummil (13 performances Carnegie Hall) Ohio Valley University 2 years; Francis Hill David Lipscomb University 2 years; William Hicks (Julliard Graduate) Blair Academy of Music 2 years; Piano teaching mentor Walter Byers (50 years teaching experience) 14 years.

Pedagogical specialties: Keyboard\Piano Playing, Music Reading, Sight Reading: the ability to play music perfectly with no practice, Improvisation: the ability to make music up as you are playing with no practice, Music Theory, EZ Play Book Playing, Fake Book Playing, Chart Playing and Lead Sheet Playing.

I am Valerie Carroll and I absolutely love music and I especially enjoy teaching!! I have taught for 30 years and my students mean a great deal to me! I teach the following: Voice, Piano, Flute, Trombone, Bassoon, Beginning guitar, and specialize in singing while playing the piano or guitar which is so much fun to do!
I believe in making sure the basics are well learned so your time and money is not being wasted. I also believe in making lesson time fun while accomplishing so much from start to finish. It's important to not waste precious time. I also have always gotten along great with EVERY student.
Performing is also important and so much fun! A great self esteem builder for certain! Along with recitals we perform at several malls around the valley.
I'm so grateful that Linton-Milano's Music has chosen me to be one of their teachers and I hope you will keep me in mind when signing up for lessons. We WILL have a great time while learning so much! MUSIC is a wonderful gift!

Christy Porter is excited to be joining the Milano team! She is currently accepting violin and beginning piano and viola students. Miss Porter grew up in Arizona and attended college at ASU where she graduated with a degree in Music Education. She also received a Master's Degree from NAU. Christy taught music for Mesa Public Schools from 1994-1998 and is currently the Instrumental Music teacher at Heritage Academy in Mesa. She was a member of the Mesa Symphony for 10 years and has played with many orchestras around the valley. Miss Porter has been teaching privately for many years now and enjoys sharing her love of music with her students.