Gratz Opus 118 Music And Dance

  The first and most important aspect of beginning music instruction is to discover what the student hopes to eventually accomplish with the instrument.  We have a 1st and 2nd lesson, listening to the student play or begin with instrument orientation if the student is a beginner.  Appropriate instructional materials are obtained, and the musical adventure begins!

I personally have a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Spelman College, Atlanta GA, (1980) and a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from  Miami University, Oxford, OH. (1982)  I have also attended a number or conferences and workshops related to piano pedagogy.

I consider myself to a lifelong learner--continuing to work on my own piano performance.  I am also affiliated with the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy, and continue to develop my piano pedagogy skills.

Gratz Opus 118 has a rate of 22.50 for a weekly 30-minute lesson.  Lessons are billed monthly, $90.00, payable in full at the beginning of each month.  Students may opt for a 60- minute minute lesson week, the rate would be doubled to $180.00 monthly.

I began teaching class piano as a graduate assistant. while working on my Master's degree at Miami in 1980.  I have been teaching piano ever since.

I have successfully taught students ranging from beginners at young ages to college music majors who were pursuing a degree in music education.  I was an adjunct piano instructor for 6 years at Valparaiso University.  Students assigned to me at VU were often music education majors who needed to fulfill the piano proficiency requirement.  I also taught in the preparatory department, Partners for Music.

My assignment at Wirt-Emerson was to teach all students who wished to concentrate on piano performance as their art major.  (Wirt-Emerson is a public school/magnet school for visual and performing arts in Gary, IN). The school goes from grades 6-12, and as the only piano teacher, I had the opportunity to teach some of those students for 7 years.  One of those students went on to major in music and college and has succeeded me as the piano instructor at Wirt-Emerson.  I took early retirement this past school year in order to become owner/Executive Director of Gratz Opus 118. 

On March 25, we held our monthly studio recital.  Students representing our various teaching studios had the opportunity to perform.  Since we have been doing these monthly recitals, I have observed the musical growth of all the students who perform.  It's a relatively informal setting, but the students are having frequent opportunities to get over performance anxiety and have fun while sharing their musical gifts.  We had student representation from "all ages and all stages".  They all performed well and are happy to perform.  It was great to see the growth!

Find out as much as you can about that teacher's experience/training.  If you can, talk to someone who's studied with that teacher.  Give yourself at least 1 month of study with that teacher to make certain that your personalities work well together.  By the end of 4 lessons, you should know whether or not it will work.

 A student should let his/her teacher know what kind of music they would like to play.  Although every good music teacher is going to teach students how to read music, there can be some flexibility in the type of music the student wants to play.