Eleni maureas
Eleni Maureas is a living legacy of a family of musicians. Both her parents, Mike and Vera, were accomplished professional musicians in Southern California. She was raised in an environment of constant musical stimulation and support. She began her studies in music on the flute at age 9, and later went on to study music privately.
Eleni holds a bachelors degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of California at Los Angeles. In addition to an extensive background in classical music, she has studied and played music from the Near East, Brazil, and the Balkans, in addition to her passion, jazz. While at UCLA, she was a member of the World Jazz Ensemble, the Near East ensemble and Balkan music ensemble.
What you should know
Occupation:
Composer, Performer,
Music Educator
instruments:
C Flute, Alto Flute,
Piccolo, Violin
Favorite Subjects:
The environment, kids, sports
some original works (click on titles to play media):
some PROFESSIONAL ARRANGEMENTS (click on titles to play media):
“Desencontro Certo” by Hermeto Pascoal (EMMPH Quintet)
All About Me
After graduation, Eleni continued to pursue her education in music by studying with renowned jazz flutist James Newton at Cal State Los Angeles, while taking her credential courses. At CSULA Ms. Maureas led three different jazz combos that performed throughout the university community. She has performed as a featured instrumental lead at various legendary Los Angeles area clubs: the Mint, Staples Center, and Knitting Factory, to name a few. In addition, Eleni performed with her own groups, collaborating with guitarist Angelo Metz. Ms. Maureas also played at various venues in the Venice area with her own jazz quintet, and it was the culmination of these experiences that inspired Eleni to pursue her passion for music in New York.
Starting out in New York, Ms. Maureas began studying with esteemed jazz flutist Elise Wood. Eleni is a master’s degree recipient in Jazz Performance and Composition from New York University. While at NYU she was privileged to study with Robert Dick, Rich Shemaria, Ralph Alessi, Memo Acevedo, Brian Lynch and Dave Pietro.
Eleni has had the honor to perform with many legendary and esteemed jazz musicians. She performed with “El Rey” Tito Puente, Franciso Aguabella, Jihad Racy and Kenny Burrell at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall. She participated in the Master Class/Open rehearsal for the "Billy Strayhorn" Concert, hosted at Aaron Davis Hall by the John Hicks Big Band. Eleni and Elise Woods traveled to Southern California to Angelo Metz, and also appeared in NYC along side Duduka Da Fonseca and John Hicks. In addition Eleni has performed with the following esteemed artists: Ralph Alessi, Gil Goldstein, Kenny Werner, Richard Bona, Dafnis Prieto, Brian Lynch and Lenny Picket of the SNL band.
As a leader Ms. Maureas co-created music collaborating on ensemble EMMPH! with Mike Hyziak. Both put their talents together to promote original musical ideas that feature several of her original compositions. EMMPH! has appeared at many of New York City’s best venue’s including the famed Smalls Jazz Club in Greenwich Village, Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, and in Los Angeles at the former Blue Cafe in California. Currently the group is featured in a documentary about immigration, affiliated with the 'Dreams Across America' organization. Eleni and Mike also combine their compositional abilities to write for film and media.
Eleni is an experienced and highly qualified music educator. She has been teaching privately for longer than she can remember. In 2001 she began teaching orchestra publicly for the LA Unified School District. In that capacity she taught orchestral instruments to over 300 students in the South LA community. While pursuing her passion in New York, Ms. Maureas was blessed with the opportunity to teach orchestra for a few years in Brooklyn, New York at IS 349. While a graduate student at NYU, Eleni used her knowledge of education to assist Dr. David Schroeder, the Director of Jazz Studies, to create jazz outreach to NYC schools’ music students. She used her education experience again while working for the NYU Office of Special Programs, facilitating the administrative aspects of summer workshops offered through the university’s music department. Upon graduation, Ms. Maureas returned to the pubic school teaching at PS/IS 66 in Canarsie, where she taught over 300 kids the love of music!
To be closer to family, Eleni and her husband Mike relocated to Los Angeles, where she has been composing for film/media, as well as participating in various performance opportunities. She has collaborated with artist Koki Tanaka, composing original music for and performing in the “Made in LA, festival of Arts” at the UCLA Hammer Museum of Art. This summer Eleni is writing her first ever musical play called “Keep the Faith” that features a chose your ending writing workshop for middle school performers to be streaming with music instrumentalists singers, dancer and actors this fall!
Currently she is head of the Arts Department at Wright Middle School Magnet. To date the arts department has produced over 25 shows with fourteen being full scale musical productions. During her time at Wright, Eleni has pursued National Certification in Teaching, music. Her candidacy was made possible in part by the generosity of the California Arts Council with a “Arts and Accessibility” grant from the National Arts and Disability Center. In 2017 and 2018 Ms.Maureas was honored by the Grammy Association by becoming a Quarter Finalist for the Grammy Educator Award. Ms. Maureas penned, on behalf of Wright, $17,000 in grant funds from the Flourish Foundation and California Community Foundation. Ms. Maureas has also raised an additional $25,000 in donations and instruments for the students of Wright by the generous support of Donors Choose and the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation. She has also brought the partnerships of The Inner City Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Center for Arts and Performance at UCLA, LA County Parks and Recreation, the National Middle School Kindness Challenge, and GMCLA to her school community.
Ms. Maureas currently resides in Torrance, California with her husband Mike and their wonderful son Theo.
Eleni can be reached by:
email: flutegirlvenice@yahoo.com
or phone: (917) 873-0328
