Valentina Girina

Our daughter started with Valentina about five years ago at age seven. Since we had no preconceived design for her music education, she started out very casually. All we wanted was that our daughter would be able to appreciate and to enjoy making music. Valentina is very patient and has a wonderful way to express the need for additional practice or to show her satisfaction for a job well done. From an early age on, our daughter understood what was required of her to prepare well for her weekly lesson and there has not been one day in all those years when our daughter was not excited to go to her piano lesson.

From what we can tell, Valentina doesn’t use a set program to help kids develop their piano skills. She picks studies, exercises and sonatina/sonatas appropriate for each child at their level but leaves them plenty of room to select their performance pieces. Having this freedom to play pieces she truly enjoys has been a huge motivating factor in our daughter’s case. We also appreciate that Valentina encourages the students’ input to the interpretation of a piece when appropriate.

Thanks to Valentina’s personality and approach to teaching, our daughter’s interest, dedication, and focus has reached a level we would have never expected. Valentina has helped our daughter to gain sufficient proficiency and confidence to participate successfully in music competitions and prepared her well enough to perform on stage during winner’s recitals at Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall.

I highly recommend Valentina. She is a kind and patient teacher who really cares about the progress of her piano students.

Valentina is a wonderful and talented instructor. She is very patient and caring to her students. She holds students to very high standards that does nothing short of setting them up to for success in the piano world. I’m very happy with my son’s progress in his two first years working with Valentina and I highly recommend her.

Valentina is a great teacher. She is very dedicated to piano and her students.

Wonderful teacher. We love her very much.

Valentina is very knowledgeable, experienced and well versed with teaching piano to a wide range of students from different age groups and backgrounds over a number of years. She is able to adjust to each student’s level and requirement with ease. Her diligence and keenness to make sure students get the technique right is remarkable. She is able to mix up the lessons with a right balance of theory, fun and practice and continuously gives the sense that one is learning and advancing. Her cool temperament and emphathy towards students while at the same time being demanding of maintaining a high standard is the best part about working with her. I have no hesitation in rating her Excellent.