Piano with Abraham W.

Welcome to my studio! I'm Bram, and I'm pleased you're visiting. I believe music education is much more than teaching a skill set: it's about listening, cognitive development, interdisciplinary perspective, and, above all, fun! An integrated, exploratory approach to music is the core of my teaching aim: to help students find their own path through the mysteries of music. In my lessons, I challenge my students to use influence from all angles: not just the song we're working on at the time, but also to put to use the songs they listen to on Spotify, their natural kinesthetic tendencies, and their general critical thinking abilities. Students should always have the opportunity to tell their own stories through their music. Feel like playing this section extra loudly? Want to write an unusually extended chorus? Insistent on analyzing your music in a method you made up last week? This is exactly the kind of creative activity I encourage. When a student brings their own imagination to their music, it is born anew with a life only they can give it. I offer students a great deal of freedom in their curriculum. It's typical to see me composing custom songs for piano students to help them with a particular skill, writing out exercises in alternative notation to widen students' perspectives on how music is communicated, and letting them bring their own music to me, telling me what they want to work on. I'm highly communicative with parents of young children, eager to learn about their life at home and school so I can best accommodate their cerebral and social needs. I teach piano, theory, composition, and conducting to students of all ages. I've had children from K through 12 in my studio, as well as college students and adults. Whatever skill set you bring, you'd fit right in. I hope you'll join me! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bram W. holds his undergraduate degree in music from Yale University [intensive, with honors] and a Master's degree in composition from the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently pursuing a second Master's in choral conducting under UMKC's Dr. Robert Bode. Bram has founded the award-winning Collegium Musicum in Austin, TX, and currently directs Consort, the only post-classical chorus in the United States. His graduate work involves expanding classical audiences through revolutionary approaches to performance.