Ninette Tenza

Ninette is currently involved in studio work with Moonlight Studios in Atwater Village, co-producing albums with David Vasquez and Jeff Lewis for different Los Angeles-based artists. She also performs with two of her bands, "Skyline" and "WE THE PEOPLE" doing gigs at The Beverly Hills Hotel, Lakeside Country Club in Burbank, and at the Days Inn Hotel in Glendale. In 2006, she was flown to Thailand to be part of Boyd Kosiyabong's "E11eventh" concert, playing second keyboard alongside Earth,Wind & Fire's Reggie Young and Gary Bias, Phil Sanchez,(Jazz Junkies),Winston Butts(Barry White), David Vasquez(Skyline), Jeff Lewis(Tierra), and J. Curtis(Black-eyed Peas). This year, she went to Bangkok for a second time and was again asked to play second keyboard as part of BoydPod's 'BITTERSWEET'concert. Ninette started playing piano by ear,("oido") at age 4. By the age of 9, she started taking formal lessons at the University of the Philippines' Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Ms. Nita Quinto. She went on to be a Piano Scholar at the Philippine High School for the Arts settled atop the Legendary "Mount Makiling" (where the most picturesque of natural surroundings help inspire and mold her own creativity). She flew to America in December of '82 and migrated with her whole family to continue her Piano scholarship at the University of Southern California's Performing Arts Center under Louise Lepley. Not just a musician...but an artist as well. Ninette attended Fairfax Highschool, a Magnet School for Visual Arts, where she got the opportunity to work with world-renowned Pop-artist, Red Grooms. Along with other selected art scholars, they collaborated on The Installation of the City of Paris at the Barnsdall Art Center in Hollywood. That summer, Ninette took up painting at Otis Parsons School of Design and won a special recognition for her work in Unocal's Mercado Design Poster. She took up Fine Arts at Cal State L.A. majoring in Interior Design but found herself landing a job as a draftsman at the Architectural Landscape Firm of Robert Clark & Associates that specialized more on Commercial sites. Despite her enthusiasm for art, she NEVER left her music behind...Ninette has always been trained as a classical pianist but the "lure" of Pop Music beckoned and she found herself unable to resist the calling! She joined several bands here in the States...Hajji Alejandro's Flashbacks Band and Boy Katindig's Jazz Quartet as the featured vocalist, before going back home to Manila in December of '92. There, she honed her craft performing primarily as a Solo Piano-Voice act in Manila's premiere Hotel Music Lounges. Later on, she became part of well-established bands,namely,The HotDogs(whom she joined for their Singapore stint),and Pido with Take One, doing shows in all of Manila's Premiere 5-Star hotels...(Skylounge at the Diamond Hotel, Conway's Bar at the Shangri-La),and venues such as Strumm's, and the Streelife Bar in Makati, which she fondly calls "Home". Her voice has graced numerous commercial jingles and radio station IDs (Jam 88.3). Film scoring was another avenue she did pursue. She scored the short film 'Ang Pabrika' for Jon Red aka 'Juan Pula'and started writing songs for Philippine recording artists. Hajji Alejandro's 'Pagbabalik' album and Ella May Saison's U.S. released CD with Evander Holyfield's RealDeal Records, to name a few.In 1996, Ninette garnered a Hit song... "What Good is That Without You", by legendary composer, Toti Fuentes (which is now being re-released by miss Anna Fegi). Her influences include Diana Krall,Sarah McLachlan, Alicia Keys, Carol King, Norah Jones,Michael Ruff, George Duke, Al Jarreau, John Legend, Holly Cole, Jane Monheit and the late Eva Cassidy.