Meet the Teachers

Claudia Reinsch

Claudia has been a music lover her entire life. Very early, she felt the calling to become a music teacher, working with several students while she was still in high school. She has been a student of music throughout her life and career. She began her professional career as a music instructor in 1979 with the Keyser Music Center. Nine years later, in 1988, she purchased Westside Music School. With a love for teaching students of all ages and Claudia enjoys watching as they grow in knowledge, ability, and confidence. In addition to providing music instruction Claudia also enjoys the challenge of managing the music school and the joy of getting to know and work with really wonderful people… READ MORE

Chris Swanson, Violin Instructor

Chris has 20 years of teaching experience.  He teaches  classical, folk, popular, country, and bluegrass styles to children and adults.  He has an incremental teaching style with reasonable expectations for easy progress at each lesson with a focus on both excellence and fun.

Mahsheed Massarat

Mahsheed discovered her love for music at the age of five, when she began studying at Westside Music School in 2000. For thirteen years she enjoyed learning to play the piano in addition to the thrills of improvisation and composing her own pieces…one of which was selected for publication as a national winner in the 2009 Clavinova Competition Challenge, when she was fourteen. A singer from early childhood, she began studying voice formally at age sixteen and credits her time at the music school for building her aural and musicianship skills, coupled with her encouraging music mentors. This led to multiple awards and accolades for both instruments and truly shaped her as a person and musician, especially in her formative years. Inevitably, her love for music continued to grow into adulthood. A classically trained mezzo-soprano praised by Oregon ArtsWatch for her “rich, full mezzo” voice and “entrancing” presence. She is a versatile artist and teacher skilled in performing and teaching in a variety of musical styles, ranging from classical/operatic repertoire, musical theatre, as well as pop and contemporary music. She earned her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Oregon and her Master of Music Degree in Voice Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2020. She is a student of acclaimed Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano, Susanne Mentzer. Upon graduation in 2020 at the start of the pandemic, she was fortunate to have been joined the faculty of the Colorful Universe Music School in Santa Clara, California as a Lead Voice Instructor and Administrative Assistant, in addition to the teaching faculty at Westside Music School. Over the past few years of growth from the teaching perspective, she has experienced the transformative power music has on self-expression, emotional and physical wellbeing, as well as bringing people together in joyous as well as difficult times in a very meaningful way. She feels honored and grateful to give back to the musical community that raised her as Westside Music School’s Voice Instructor, and a Piano Instructor alongside the school’s wonderful teaching team and staff. When she isn’t filling her head with notes, sounds and melodies, she finds her peace and relaxation in nature, yoga, zumba classes, shopping, cooking and feeding the wildlife in her backyard while observing their “interesting” and “territorial” behavior!

Sami Ravindra

Sami has been teaching music for serval years in California, and recently moved up to Oregon. She holds a BA in Piano Performance from Mills College, where she won the Flora Boyd piano performance prize. Sami has studied with noted teachers such as Belle Bulwinkle, Svetlana Elenkova, Natallia Lobenberg, and Ruzanna Farmazyan. In addition to music, Sami is passionate about animals and animal welfare. She volunteers for PMR horse rescue in her spare time and studies dressage horseback riding. She also holds an MBA in marketing from Mills College. 

Emily Myhre

Emily began her music studies at age six in 2002, right here at Westside Music School! Her love of music-making grew throughout her childhood and teenage years as she played piano duets with her sister and friends, accompanied the Meadow Park Middle School choirs at age 16, sang in choir at Westview High School and worked through the 10 levels of the OMTA Syllabus program. She has always loved to share her musical knowledge and abilities with others, beginning with casually teaching many friends through childhood and going on to teach formally starting in high school. What Emily has always loved most about music is how it has the power to bring people of all different kinds together, bonding people together into a musical family through their shared experience.  Her love for playing the piano lead her to earn a Bachelor's Degree is Music (with a concentration in Piano Pedagogy) from Whitworth University in 2019. Throughout and after college, Emily taught private piano lessons to students ages 3-adult in the Spokane area. She also had opportunities in Spokane to play piano for Micah 6:8 Ministries (playing music in Hospice Houses), play in several church worship bands, accompany for the choirs at Saint George's School, and substitute teach music and choir classes at the elementary through high school levels. When she's not playing or teaching piano, Emily loves to go for hikes, sew her own clothes, listen to audiobooks, rock climb, and spend time with friends and family. Emily recently moved back "home" to the Portland area and is excited to begin her journey sharing the joy of music with children at Westside Music School.