Meet Our Teachers
Ilsa Ahmad
Ilsa Ahmad is a multidisciplinary artist primarily working in oil painting, soft sculpture, and new media art. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alberta, with distinction (2024). She is passionate about sharing her creative experiences and the skills she has learned over many many years. Taking a collaborative approach to teaching drawing and painting, she is happy to explore her student’s interests and perspectives on artmaking. She believes in working together to grow as well-rounded artists.
Ilsa is also on the Board of Directors for Latitude 53, serving as the Fundraising and Advocacy Committee Chair. She has most recently exhibited in group shows at aceartinc. (2024), McMullen Gallery (2024, 2023), FAB Gallery (2024, 2023), dc3 Art Projects (2023), and Latitude 53.
Peter Burandt
Peter’s life in music began with piano lessons at the age of six.
During the first year of lessons his teacher noticed he had a sharp ear for pitch and recommended starting violin lessons at the age of seven. From then on his musical education consisted of violin and piano studies at the primary and secondary music schools in Gdansk, Poland until the age of eighteen and violin and viola studies at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City from age of nineteen.
Included in his formal musical education were: music theory and history, chamber music, orchestra and choir. Throughout his schooling and professional life he played in orchestras, chamber music ensembles and recording studios.
In addition to providing his students with a traditional, classically based training, he likes to foster individual creativity through introduction of intuitive improvisation. He has taught at Caesar’s School of Music for the last 20 years.
Hanna Dotzenroth
Hanna Dotzenroth is a visual and conceptual artist working primarily in oil painting, printmaking, gardening, and textiles. She is a graduate of the Bachelor of Fine Arts program in Art and Design at the University of Alberta and has shown her work at a variety of exhibitions around Alberta and British Columbia. Working professionally under the name HannadMade, she has sold her work at many markets around the wider Edmonton area over the past eight years. As she continues to expand her own artistic career, she is delighted to share these passions with students of all ages through drawing and oil painting lessons.
Anna Guzik
Anna has been playing the piano since the age of 8 and completed the RCM program as part of her studies, including an Elementary Piano Pedagogy certificate. She now has nearly 10 years of music teaching experience and has worked with students of all ages and abilities throughout the years. Her lessons include a blend of classical and popular music, as well as music theory, to create a well-rounded understanding of music.
Marcin Guzik
Marcin Guzik started his musical career at age 8 with piano lessons, but after only a couple years decided he wished to pursue guitar instead. He began taking lessons from Caesar on classical guitar and has since completed Bachelors of Music and Education at the University of Alberta on the trumpet. Throughout the process he also returned to the piano and picked up acoustic, electric, and bass guitar, as well as the ukulele. He began teaching at Caesar's School of Music in 2015 and continues to pass down his knowledge of technique, music theory, and musicianship - as well as that of audio recording and mixing - to each of his students in fun, yet challenging lessons.
Bryn Lipinski
Bryn is a Performance Major at MacEwan University's music program, where he is focusing on progressive rock, pop, fusion, and classical music. Bryn is a versatile player; a drummer first, who adeptly incorporates all percussion instruments into his set up, as well as electronics.
Olivia Mitchell
Olivia is finishing her 5th year at the University of Alberta in the combined B. Mus/ B. Ed (elementary). Having performed at numerous events and festivals, she has used her love and passion to teach voice and piano. Olivia has been singing in a choir since she was 4 years old, and with the constant use of her instrument, she is now teaching at the same community choir she sang in all those years ago! She has recently been awarded the Jason Lang Scholarship for her academic pursuits. In her free time, she enjoys hanging out with friends, reading, and hanging out with her two cats, Evie and Emmy. She is excited about her future as an elementary school teacher but equally eager to take this valuable experience to teach students one-on-one at Caesar's School of Art and Music.
Michelle Que
Michelle, pianist, composer, performed throughout Europe, North America, and Asia, is currently a doctoral student and teaching assistant at University of Alberta. She graduated from University of North Texas, achieved Master of Music in piano performance, is winner of 2024 Johann Strauss Foundation Award, 2024 Edmonton Chamber Music Society Scholarship Competition, 2024 Alberta Baroque Music Society Award, won Grand Prize at 2022 Royal Sound Keyboard Competition, Gold Prize in Professional Category and Special Prize at 2022 Manchester International Music Competition, Grand Prize at 2022 USA Classical Music International Competition. She is member of Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society, Alpha Chi National Honor Society, Golden Key International Honor Society, Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association University of Alberta Collegiate Chapter.
Zach Robertson
Zach Daniel Robertson grew up in Grande Prairie and started playing guitar as a young teenager in 2008, forming several short-lived rock bands with friends before eventually joining his high school jazz ensemble. This experience taught him the basics of performing in an ensemble, and, with the help of a few summer theory courses, he got his first music-related job teaching one-on-one guitar lessons at Music Center Canada in 2011. The band teacher recognized his talent and passion and pushed him to apply to Grant MacEwan University's Bachelor of Music (in jazz and contemporary popular music) program in 2012, which he completed in 2016 with a major in composition. While attending university, Zach started working at Caesar's School of Art and Music and has been teaching here since 2013. He has over a decade of teaching and performing experience and continues to educate and perform in the Edmonton area. He specializes in contemporary styles (blues, rock, jazz, country, and pop) and is a multi-instrumentalist with a focus on fretted and plucked string instruments such as the guitar, bass, ukulele, banjo, and mandolin.
Carson Sautner
Carson Sautner is a recent graduate from the University of Alberta, completing his Bachelor of Music in Classical Guitar Performance in 2024. Now a resident of Edmonton, Carson works closely with the recently developed Edmonton Guitar Seminar to help bring other educational opportunities to the Edmonton area. As a teacher, Carson prioritizes each student's unique learning abilities in both one-on-one and group lessons.
Other organizations Carson has worked with are Edmonton Opera, where he performed in their Downtown Vibrancy Concert Series in 2023, and the Kamloops Music Collective as a faculty member for their Kamloops Interior Summer School of Music camp. Now that he has completed his performance degree, Carson plans to focus on competing in competitions while also preparing for master’s programs here in Canada. Some of his recent performances include debuting with the Western Canadian Guitar Quartet at the Okanagan Guitar Festival held in Kelowna in 2024.
Victor Yu
Music and piano have always been an essential part of Victor's childhood. Beginning with private and group lessons, his classical music training followed the RCM curriculum, with Music Theory, Applied Theory, and Harmony lessons.
From 2008 onward, he continued his studies under the guidance of Joseph Fridman (M.Mus), and during the next 6 years specialized in the interpretation of works by Frederic Chopin as well as piano pedagogy. In addition, he attended countless workshops, lectures, and masterclasses, whose authors include: Joseph Fridman, Mikolaj Warszynski, Dale Wheeler, Alexander Tselyakov, and Sylvia Shadick-Taylor.
As an Instructor, he is constantly improving and refining his methods to deliver a fun, interactive, and nurturing lesson experience. Victor has been teaching piano and theory students of varying ages and abilities since 2015 and is currently writing a book on music pedagogy and practicing.
Caesar Zmysłowski
Caesar Zmysłowski started his musical education at age 5, started performing at age 11, and won second place at the National Guitar Competition in Poland only two years later. He attended music school in Gdansk, Poland for 16 years, and as a life-long performer, has played in Poland, Greece, Germany, France, Switzerland, the US and Canada in many styles, ranging from the classical music of J.S. Bach to many modern and contemporary styles.
In addition to performing with various chamber music ensembles, such as guitar and violin duos and all guitar ensembles, Caesar has played as a soloist at the Winspear Centre for Music with the Canadian Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Grzegorz Nowak, and continued on for a year as the artistic manager for the Canadian Chamber Orchestra. Caesar has also released a CD titled "Caesar and Marcus: Pieces for Two Guitars", and has been an adjudicator in many Kiwanis Guitar Festivals in Edmonton.
In 1996, Caesar established a school of music to share his knowledge and his love of guitar to many students, and has expanded to a team of skilled teachers on various instruments. For two decades now, Caesar has been committed to providing the highest quality of service and a friendly, professional environment for students of all ages to learn and enjoy music.