Our Teachers
Teo Poh Heng as the founder and CEO of Riffs Music School is a well known figure in the local music arena. Having graduated in 1996 from the Yamaha Music Academy with a Diploma in Music and from the School of Creative Arts in 2001, Poh Heng has been a contributing songwriter and producer to more than 15 albums as a professional musician. Teo have also worked with luminaries in the film-making industry producing movie soundtracks for popular local films such as Kelvin Tong’s“Rule Number 1″, “It’s a Great Great World” and both of Wee Li Lin’s “Gone Shopping” and “Forever”.
The instructors at Riffs Music School are highly sought-after musicians, singers and songwriters in the local scene. Their extensive experience involves practically every aspect of music production across the media channels, be it on-air or on-screen. Just for a short 2 years, Riffs Music School have graduated 55 students under London College of Music certification.
Sherlyn Chia
Sherlyn Chia, commonly known as 雪玲老师, is no stranger in the music industry. Besides having received training from renowned celebrity voice coach Michiko in Japan, and various voice trainers and speech pathologist for more than 10 years, she has also obtained many certification including London College of Music (Pop vocals), Trinity Guildhall (Classical Vocals) and is also registered with the Ministry of Education as a certified Arts and Music Instructor.
Throughout her years as a vocal trainer, she has trained many regional artistes such as 王传一, 李冰冰 (lead actress starred with jackie Chan in Forbidden Kingdom), 黄麒铭, 陈嘉唯Renee, By2 etc, and not forgetting local stars such as Project Superstar/ Superband finalists. She has also conducted training for other sectors such as government leaders: MPs, mayors, Corporate regional directors, Youth-at-risk, Musicals and projects for primary and secondary schools as well as universities such as Singapore Management University.
Formally the main regional vocal coach for Ocean Butterflies, Sherlyn had hand-crafted the successful training syllabus for Music Forest Singapore 海蝶森林 , Malaysia 海螺森林 and Beijing 北京森林, as well as training up the respective country’s main vocal coach. She has also trained up numerous students who are now currently vocal instructors in leading music schools.
As a performer, Sherlyn has performed for numerous events, countries and venues such as Macau, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Esplanade, Singapore indoor stadium (jazz festival), Opening of Singapore Trade fair, Borders cafe. She has also performed for National Day Parade as the finale and preview lead singer for Veteran Kit Chan and graced events before a number of ministers, including the ambassador of Sweden and the president of South Africa. She has also judged for numerous events, including NTU Impresario 2009.
Her recording projects includes: JJ Lin JunJie 林俊杰 albums: 89757, 西界, 第二天堂, 阿杜 albums: 天黑, Hello etc.
Zhang Si’er (张思尔)
Zhang Si’er (张思尔) is a freelance songwriter in the Chinese pop music industry, who began his songwriting career with practically no knowledge in music.
Nonetheless, through his passion in songwriting, he discovered a unique style of writing which has allowed him to produce multiple hits for singers like JJ Lin, Cyndi Wang, Harlem Yu, Tarcy Su, Ado, Sun Ho, and many others.
Some of his works include: 豆浆油条, 翅膀, 会有那么一天, 当你, 末日之恋, 编号89757, 你的肩膀 etc. Sier also received many nominations for music awards in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan.
Part of his passion in songwriting includes imparting to other songwriting enthusiasts and students and teaching his unique style of songwriting via his workshops and courses.