Clarissa N.

General Info

• Certified Music Teacher

  Certified Music Teacher

  Our rigorous hiring process requires a completed application; an interview with our professional recruiting specialists; personal and professional reference checks; and annual criminal background checks for the duration of each teacher's employment with us.

  
• Background Check Complete

  Criminal Background Check

  In order to ensure the safety of our students, all teachers undergo a thorough criminal background check, which includes: Social Security number trace, multi-state criminal search and a nationwide sex offender registry search.

  
• Levels: Beginner to Advanced

• In-Home Lessons: No
• In-Studio Lessons: Yes
• Ages: 5 & up

Subjects Taught

Piano

Education

carnegie-mellon univ. - Music/Piano Perf.(child.pedagogy minor) - 1983-1987 (Bachelor's degree received)

Specialties

my first teacher was a student of Alfred Cortot, my teacher at carnegie-mellon was Eugene Liszt...i have incorporated their teaching methods into my own style. Although Classical Music is my forte, i do have students who do contemporary and broadway music, my emphasis is on teaching my students how to read music so that they can play whatever their hearts desire...I want them to LOVE music, and this is why so many of them stick with it all the way through College and beyond..many of my students ... who i used to teach when they were kids return to me after College since we have created such a strong bond. I truly love what i do, and I think the kids can feel it and respond in kind.

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Lesson Details

My objective in the first few months of working with a new student is to teach them all the basics-especially how to read music-so they will be able to get to play the pieces they love as soon as possible. My emphasis is on classical music, but i also teach popular music and Broadway Music or anything else the student might prefer.
I use the Michael Aaron Beginner's book together with note reviews (my own method of teaching note reading the fast and easy way).
I am very friendly and outgoing- ... being overly strict doesn't accomplish anything- but i am progress oriented. My students all practice because they want to move forward and improve and because they enjoy coming to class.
After 3 months many students are just about ready to start on their first real classical piece (such as "Fur Elise' by Beethoven) and by 6 months most are playing small classical pieces by Mozart, Bach and Haydn and Beethoven.
In addition, many of my students enjoy learning contemporary and musical theatre pieces, and some even come for audition coaching . I accompany them and help prepare them for their music theater auditions: I teach them how to incorporate their piano training to aid them with their vocal exercises and....having an extended personal background in musical theater myself...give them feedback and insight into the audition process.

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About

I studied piano in Germany with Lola Poirier (a student of the famous Alfred Cortot) for 11 years, then with Philiip Evans in New York (professor at the Manhattan School of Music) and finally with world-renowned concert pianist Eugene Liszt at Carnegie-Mellon University, where i received my Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance with a Minor in Child Pedagogy.

For the past twenty-two years i have been teaching students of all levels and ages, incorporating some of my former teachers' methods ... with my own teaching style. I am passionate about awakening a hunger in each of my students for bringing and keeping music in their lives forever. I don't look at my students as children who play an instrument, but as young artists on the road to self-discovery and musical fulfillment! Although many of my students have used their proficiency in piano for college applications and scholarship opportunities, my goal remains to bring them to such a high level of playing that they will be able to keep the piano in their lives well into adulthood and beyond.

Along the way I have created strong bonds of friendship with many of my former students, to the point that i feel like they have become a part of my extended family. I am most rewarded when a former student drops by for a visit after completing college to let me know how they are still being positively affected by their continued use of the gift of playing the piano.

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