About Lissa

I am Lissa - a musician, composer/arranger, music director, and theory-enthusiast based physically in Portland, OR! I am a pianist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, music director, arranger, composer, and performer. I play across genre and style and bring multiple instrument perspectives to my playing and teaching. Music is the constant drive in my world. I bring intense energy and passion to every project and each lesson from a lifetime of experiencing the wide range of sound our world has to offer. Deeply dedicated to bringing new and adaptive works to the stage, I have found my way into supporting new works as a director, performer, coordinator, and orchestrator. Recent music direction credits include Rella: The Musical written by Bevin Victoria and Aaron Wheeler-Kay, The Double Threat Trio with Broadway Rose Theatre Company, educational theater programming with Broadway Rose Theatre, and The Pirates of Penzance with Light Opera of Portland. I carry with me 20 years of performing experience, 10 years as a teaching artist, and 3 years building experience as a professional arranger and music director in the context of emerging live musicals.

I am a conservatory-trained pianist and musicologist holding a Bachelor’s of Music in Music History & Literature from Western Washington University. I consider myself a music theorist at the intersection of musicology and theory first through thesis work confronting the complexities of Western music theory education through the fraught lens of Schenkerian Analysis. Currently I am continuing my deep theory work through studying and playing broad global modal systems and specifically the of fusion Arabic Maqam in American/Western music in our globalized music culture. I am trained formally in musicology, piano, voice, and guitar under: Dr. Felicia Youngblood (musicology), Dr. Bertil Van Boer (musicology), Jeffrey Gilliam (piano), Jay Rozendaal (voice), Dr. Sophie Christian (piano), Detelinka Dimitrov (piano), Dr. Peter Dickson Lopez (piano), Cathy Hirata (piano), Jeff Masanari (jazz guitar), Laura Thoreson (voice).

I am currently working on scoring the book for Rella: The Musical, recording and releasing my first EP (as an adult… ask me later I’ll give you the whole story…), building a client base for arranging/scoring/copy editing services, and collaborating with fellow interdisciplinarians on projects to be announced. Thank you for your support and interest, I hope to meet!

Black and white portrait of a woman with light-colored eyes, wavy hair, and a slight smile, wearing a dark top.

A woman with styled hair wearing a purple and gold dress is playing the piano.

A woman with short hair and tattoos on her arms is sitting at a piano, playing. The setting appears to be a cozy, artsy room with warm lighting, a large colorful painting of a woman and a stork in the background, and red fabric covering part of the piano.

@lissa.makes.sounds Instagram Feed

Excited to share a project I was brought on for as a piano arranger… The Gentlemen’s Ploy by the endlessly clever P.R. Pinnock! If you attend the 2 premier performances at Fertile Ground PDX 2026 you may or may not hear my *stab* at sword fight music as well as some lovely little dances! Info on the musical and Fertile Ground below: Fertile Ground: fertilegroundpdx.org The Gentlemen’s Ploy: prpinnock.com #pianocomposer #arrangercomposer #musicals #portlandormusic #fertilegroundfestival

Celebrating spring by reflecting on the various nefarious projects I was working on this fall and winter... 🎹 PLANTS! Regrouping after Music Directing back to back shows summer/fall by playing with dirt and snowdrops that are just minding their own business 🎹 Screen to Stage at the Kiggin's Theater 🎹 Conducting an orchestra for the first time post-college! Featuring the live sketching skills of @eblocky 🎹 Music Directing Pirates of Penzance with the Gilbert & Sullivan pride of Portland @lightoperapdx 🎹 Becoming a Portlander - playing at the P'5, featuring my cool elevator persona 🎹 Workshopping @rellathemusical in a beautiful shop (@nomadicvintagepdx) after hours 🎹 Getting to do what I love - playing all the instruments at the same time with incredibly talented people who let me mess around in music-land ❤️

@rootedmusiccollectivepdx Instagram Feed

12 Studio Openings - Regular lesson begin late August 2026! Now booking Intro Meetings at karinlissa.music 🎹Piano, voice, guitar, theory, collaborative music, and coaching. Be prepared for many a deep-dive and the opportunity to bring awareness to building a musical practice based on independence, confidence, and disciplined self-discovery.

🐌🌼 Lissa is a pianist, vocalist, musicologist, theorist, arranger, composer, music director, and teaching artist with multi-instrumentalist skills (including but hopefully not limited to hand & mallet percussion, guitar, ukulele, mandolin, clarinet, and saxophone) due to always making a habit of saying YES if you hand her a cool thing that makes noise. 🎭 You may have seen Lissa recently in her ongoing role as Music Director and arranger for Rella: the Musical or in various collaborative roles in the musicals genre. 🖌She is extremely passionate about teaching the theory and physicality of music. Booking info to follow! 🕸In addition to her work as a collaborative musician and teaching artist, she is expanding efforts and offerings in 2026 to scoring, arranging, copy-editing, and releasing as an independent artist.

🌱As a collective, we support each others' art🌱 We have immense creative energy and big goals for our crafts. Through forming Rooted ~ resources are pooled, community is formed, and we grow into our own as independent artists. We push each other to be the best teachers, players, and performers we can be.

🏵Jesse is a songwriter, organist, teacher, and trans singer. 🥀Keys in @orange_fucking_vanilla & Music Director at Ascension Episcopal Parish. 🌜They like to make music from the dream world, and teach creativity, improvisation, and good technique alongside traditional repertoire. "My favorite thing to see in a student is when they fall in love with a chord or a little melody. Maybe something they wrote, maybe something they are playing. That's the moment when I know the music is part of them, and everything is different after that."

What do we do? Music lessons & keys, voices & guitars, writing, arranging, recording, and more

🌱ANNOUNCING Rooted Music Collective PDX 🌱 Two musicians - @jesse.t.ehrenberg & @lissa.makes.sounds - coming together to build a space for collaboration and supportive independent creative practice. Soft Launch Summer 2026 ~ more info on offerings and booking to come!

🌻🤫... More on Monday...

About Lissa

Let’s Meet!