Carolyn Espina Stanton


Director and President of Manoa School of Music & the Arts. She has over 40 years’ experience in teaching piano students of all ages. For the past 30 years she has run her own piano school, Manoa Piano School, and recently retired as a faculty member of the Punahou Music School after 19 years. She has taught internationally in places as diverse as California, Indonesia, Texas, Boston and Honolulu. Her other teaching credentials include Yamaha Music School, the Ellen Masaki School of Music, Kapiolani Community College, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa Outreach Program. Her students have won or placed in local competitions and the Morning Music Club scholarship competition.

Mrs. Stanton is a Founding Teacher of the Royal Conservatory of Music Development Program, an American-based assessment program which is based on the Royal Conservatory of Music model in England and Canada, and regularly encourages music students to submit to this annual rigorous series of examinations.

She received her Master’s degree in Piano Pedagogy & Performance from the University of Texas at Austin, and studied there with the renowned Dr. Amanda Vick Lethco, co-author of the popular “Alfred” series of piano books. Her Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance is from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she studied with former Juilliard professor Nicholas Zumbro.

Mrs. Stanton is the former President of the Honolulu Piano Teachers Association, a former board member of the Hawaii Music Teachers Association, an active member of the American College of Musicians, and the National Guild of Piano Teachers.