Teachers

Chieko was born and raised in Osaka, Japan, where humor is one of the most sought after virtues. She often felt inadequate (so please don’t expect a stand-up comedy routine during class). Her parents met each other at the city chorus group, so her home was always filled with music. At a young age she started taking private piano lessons. Although her parents thought she was too young, she begged to be allowed to study piano because her older sister, whom she adored, had already started. She said “I’ll practice without being told to, unlike my sister!” A few years later, when her mother asked her “Don’t you want to become a good piano player?” (she’ll leave it up to you why mom would ask her that), she said “Yes! But without practicing!!”

She also sang in a kids’ chorus group. She played harmonica and recorder in elementary school and the French horn in the brass band in middle and high school, and restarted taking private piano lessons later. Wait, when did she quit?—when she restarted, however, she was very, very glad she had some good foundation of piano and music, and could not wait to go to the piano room and practice every day. 

In her early twenties, she taught at preschool, where there is a lot of singing and dancing every day. (Beware! Those teachers can not only play the piano and sing at the same time: they can also simultaneously tell a child to go back to his seat using only their eyes while the rest of their face is smiling at the class in a way that says, “You are singing so well!”). 

Around the same time, she became very passionate about singing in the church band. Then she encountered the word “ethnomusicology” while visiting Papua New Guinea. Ethnomusicology involves learning about different music systems of the world and, often, also helping minority people value their own style of music. This eventually brought her to the U.S.

Now one of her greatest joys is to be a catalyst for children and adults to taste, enjoy, learn, and create music in their unique ways.

This journey led her to her now-husband, through whom she met Nathan Shirley. Mr. Shirley has tremendously helped Chieko improve both as a musician and as a music teacher.  She has been teaching a few private students using his method, Piano Revealed, since 2025.  She is quite fond of saying that this kind of makes her Khachaturian’s great-grand student who is married to Andres Segovia’s great-great-grand student (who makes his claim by following a similar line of thought)!

She and her husband enjoy playing music together now, although initially it was difficult because her husband once said that guitar and piano go together like rice and spaghetti. It makes it even better when their son joins them.

Working with children with special needs is another thing that enriches her life. She worked as a behavior therapy tutor for several years before being honored with the arrival of her own child with special needs. It thrills her when she finds a light turn on in their eyes while they are singing, dancing, playing an instrument, or finding a new way to express themselves.

When not teaching or practicing the piano, she may be found pretending to be Goliath (at the imposing height of 4’10”), blowing bubbles in the driveway with her son, dancercizeing, making sugar- and dairy-free sweets, or visiting the local farmers’ market.

Nora Mosrie is a professional visual and performing artist who is committed to integrating the arts into education and community events. She is dedicated to sharing her passion and enthusiasm for the arts with intergenerational audiences through educational programming, theater, music performances and art exhibits. Nora believes that education through the arts is a powerful tool in building relationships, developing critical thinking skills, transforming lives and fostering positive change.

Visual art, music, acting, and dance are interwoven within Nora’s artistic journey. She has many years of performing experience in a variety of music genres and styles including solo work, ensemble and musical theatre. Nora is both a vocalist and instrumentalist with a primary focus on piano, guitar and the mountain dulcimer.

Nora has enjoyed working in a collaborative effort with local and regional organizations to provide diverse accessible learning opportunities in the visual and performing arts within communities in the Southern Appalachian region. She is a former teaching artist for Carnegie Hall in Lewisburg, West Virginia and continues an ongoing partnership with McDowell Arts Council, crescendo! Piano in the Classroom, Asheville Community Theatre, Asheville Art Museum and Wortham Center for the Performing Arts. In addition, Nora is a music director for McDowell Children’s Theatre and Tanglewood Youth Productions at Asheville Community Theatre.

Nora received an M.A. in Studio Art and a B.A. in Arts Education from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.