What's special about my studio?

My goal is to foster a love of classical music through listening, learning, and music-making with my students in a fun, supportive environment.

There are a few things that set my studio apart from most.​

My approach leads with playing, and reading skills are accrued at the student's own pace. All of my students learn to read music, but, just as literacy in language follows speech, I firmly believe that it is natural that musical literacy follows playing. For some students, the two proceed together almost simultaneously, and for others, the reading trails behind the playing for a time. Individual learning styles necessitate flexibility and sensitivity on the part of the teacher in order to facilitate the best experience for each student.

My teaching model is unusual, so I will describe it for you.​

I teach two students at a time in my home in tandem lessons, utilizing my grand piano in the main studio and an upright piano in the practice room. When the students arrive for their lesson, one begins with me in the main studio, as the other begins in the practice room. When the student working with me has a nice bit to work on, they go to the practice room, signaling the other student to switch rooms and work with me. The lesson continues in this relay manner for 45 minutes. The benefit of this lesson structure is that each student gets plenty of one-on-one time with me, in addition to an immediate chance to practice the small bits on their own, returning to me for feedback. Mistakes or misunderstandings of material can be corrected on the spot, preventing a week of counterproductive, wrong practice. The lesson is effectively a cluster of several mini- lessons interspersed with independent practice.​

My students have a voice in the choice of music they play, which adds to the motivation to learn. It's more fun to practice music that speaks to you! Since the two students who share a lesson time are not necessarily matched by level, and aren’t likely to be working on the same piece at the same time, they are not prone to the distraction of comparing their work with that of their partner, and this helps to facilitate focus on their own work.​

The 45 minute weekly tandem lessons run for the first two trimesters. During the third trimester, once school is out, we switch to 1.25-hour weekly group lessons, using games and fun activities to learn music theory and hone reading skills. This is a very popular and very effective use of the summer, and the students return to regular lessons in the fall with a heightened understanding of the music they learn to play as they prepare for recitals. ​

If this musical experience sounds interesting to you, please contact me . I look forward to speaking with you and welcoming you to my studio!

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