Oakville, CT Singing Lessons

is students for competitions, audition preparation and professional concerts. Each year his students have the opportunity to perform at the world-renowned Steinway Hall in New York City. This yearly student recital gives students the opportunity to perform in one of New York City’s most sought after recital Halls located in midtown Manhattan. In July of 2014 Paul became a Steinway Educational partner. In 2008, Paul received a Masters Degree in piano performance from New York University. In 2006, he received a Bachelor Degree of Music from Stony Brook University.
As a Pianist, In 2006 Paul was a prizewinner at the Music Club of Douglaston Piano Competition. For two consecutive years, Paul was awarded The Suffolk County Piano Forum Prize. XLNT Music recently wrote, “Paul is a fine pianist that performs with superb pianism and great sensitivity.”
 His recent public performances include Ecuador South America, Steinway Hall NYC, The United Nations, Faust Harrison Hall, Saint Peters NYC and The Staller Center. Paul has performed with The Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra and The New York University Symphony Orchestra. He has studied with well-known piano teachers including: Martin Canin, Morey Ritt, Tina Dahl, and Anita Gelber. In 2011 he released a record consisting of his performance of original compositions for solo piano that is available in bookstores and on iTunes.
As a composer Paul has composed music for the feature film Documentary Between the Shades, directed by Jill Salvino and premiered at the Soho International Film Festival in 2017. In 2014, Paul was the composer for the radio show Ackerman Associates Meets Dracula written and directed by Peter Stass. In 2014 he wrote the score for, Lies People Tell, a short film that premiered at the san pedro film festival. In 2011, he released his first solo record Succession of images, a song cycle for solo piano. In 2017, he released his second record Hope, a chamber music work recorded with clarinetist Thomas Piercy and Violinist Patrisa Tomassini. Recent public piano performances of his music include Ecuador in South America, Steinway Hall NYC, The United Nations, Spectrum NYC, Faust Harrison Hall, Saint Peters in NYC and The Staller Center in Stony Brook NY.

As an artist, Paul is known for creating large instillations, paintings and live performing art pieces. From 2014-2016, he was the artist in residence at Spectrum Gallery in NYC. In 2014, he completed the Elevator Time Machine, a large instillation made of elevator parts that responds to sound. He also wrote and produced a 20 minute live art piece called Static in Movement for piano and video. His acrylic on canvas works have also been presented at Spectrum NYC, The Art Bar, The Gallery at Logos and Ward-Nasse gallery.

Education New York University
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Piano Performance. M.A. December 2008

Stony Brook University
Music. B.A. 2006

Professional Experience
Private Music Studio: 2004-present
Instructor for piano, voice and composition; working primarily with students K-12.
• Develop individualized music plans that encourages growth and self motivated study.
• Well equipped to prepare students for the New York State Music Association Exam.
• Expertise guiding students to reach their maximum potential by using assignments that are challenging but not impossible.
• Experience preparing students for music college applications and auditions.
• Successfully prepare student recitals on a yearly basis.
• Effectively communicate with parents and engage them in their child’s music education.

Performing Arts Center of New York: 2013
• Developed and delivered a curriculum connecting the major composers and artists of the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionistic and Contemporary Periods.

Cultural House of Ecuador: 2009-2011
• Created and taught classes about the periods in music and art and how they coexist together.
• Created and taught group classes in beginner music theory and composition.

High School students in Quevedo Ecuador: 2012
• Created and taught workshops in music theory and composition.

Adjunct Instructor at New York University: 2007-2009
Instructor for New York University Keyboard Harmony and Improvisation courses.
• Created and taught a curriculum for beginner, intermediate and advanced keyboard classes.
• Created lesson plans to enhance musicality and keyboard skills for university music major and minor students.

Instructor for New York University private piano students
• Instructed music students in beginner, intermediate and advanced piano.

Our Lady of Angelus Catholic School: 2007
• Created and taught a curriculum in beginner piano to elementary school students.

Awards
• Prize Winner, TMMC Piano Competition, 2007
• Award of Honor, The Suffolk County Piano Teachers Forum Prize In recognition of outstanding achievement in piano performance, 2006
• Award of Honor, The Suffolk County Piano Teachers Forum Prize
In recognition of outstanding achievement in piano performance, 2005
Professional Affiliations
• Suffolk Piano Teacher’s Forum
• College Music Society
• Music Teacher’s National Association
• American Composers Forum
• Steinway and Sons
• American Society of Composers
• Tuesday Morning Music Club

Private Study
• Anita Gelber, 2002-2012
• Martin Canin, New York University, 2006-2008
• Justin Dello Joio, New York University, 2007-2008
• Morey Ritt, Queens College, 2006
• Tina Dahl, Stony Brook University, 2004-2006

Selected Recent Concert Performances
• Westport Library, Connecticut, NY, 2016
• Douglaston Community Church, Douglaston, NY, 2015
• All Saints Memorial Church, NJ, 2014
• Firehouse Space, Brooklyn, NY, 2014
• Spectrum NYC, New York, NY, 2014, 2013
• Steinway Hall, New York, NY, 2014, 2013, 2012
• University of Quevedo, Ecuador, 2013
• Saint Peters Church, New York, NY, 2011

Selected Film and Theater Composer Credits
• Between the Shades – Feature Film Documentary, 2016
• Lies People Tell – Short Film, 2014
• Ackerman and Associates Meet Dracula – Live Radio Show, 2013
• Magical Quark Particle – Science Art Film, 2012

Discography
• Hope, 2017
• Succession of Images, 2011

Recent Art Expositions
• Spectrum NYC, 2014-2016
• Gallery at Logos, 2012-2016
• Port Jefferson Village Center, 2012
• Ward Nasse Gallery, 2011

*** Lesson Details ***
My goal as a teacher is to make students successful in their goals. I work with a variety of people; some of them study music for personal enjoyment and others for their musical career. Everyone responds differently to music, that is why I prepare special lessons for each student. It is important that my students enjoy what they are playing and for that reason I have a variety of repertoire that they can choose from.
From a lot of experience with beginner piano students, both young and adults, I have been able to find a regimen of piano teaching that combines time efficiency with fun. As the lessons continue, I slowly add new tools to each weekly lesson that are exiting and interesting. While working with intermediate to advanced students, I have had coached them to apply and get accepted into some of the top Universities and Conservatories in the country. My students, beginner intermediate and advanced levels, have been awarded for their performances and activities in schools and competitions.
I am also a composition teacher. I work with composition students from beginner to advance. My composition students, over the years, range from all ages starting at 7. My students, after the first year, have been able to write string quartets and piano trios. My advanced students have entered competitions all over the country and are very successful in their composition practice. Some of their compositions have been performed in famous concert halls and schools.
As a vocal coach, I work with students of all ages. The repertoire that I recommend to beginner students includes Disney, Broadway and classical music. For intermediate and advanced vocal student, I have successfully prepared them for competitions, Broadway and University auditions as well as personal enjoyment.
Most recently I held a piano, composition and vocal recital for my students at the world famous Steinway Hall in New York City. I believe that some students work better when there is motivation for performance activities. For that reason I host these type of events. Students that decide they want to take place in these events perform among all levels. I offer these performance opportunities as an invitation. Each student has a choice as to whether they would like to perform.

*** Studio Equipment ***
Yamaha Grand Piano

*** Specialties ***
*Teachers classified as a Student Favorite have taught a minimum of 25
lessons and have received the highest feedback rating from students.Classical, Jazz, Blues, Broadway

horale, with Hartford Opera Theater as Elise in Dawn Sonntag's Verlorene Heimat, Pythia in Nkeiru Okeye’s We’ve Got Our Eye on You, and as Miss Paige in Dan Shore’s An Embarrassing Position which was nominated for Best Featured Ensemble in a Musical through the 2015 Broadway World Connecticut Awards. She has also performed with Opera Theater of Connecticut, Connecticut Lyric Opera, Madison Lyric Stage, Greater Worcester Opera, Revolution Opera Alliance, the Simsbury Light Opera Company, and the Greater Meriden Concert Chorale.

Prior to moving to Connecticut, Rachel lived in St. Louis, Missouri, where she frequently performed with the St. Louis Symphony as a member of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus. She has also performed with Winter Opera St. Louis, Union Avenue Opera, and the Southern Illinois Music Festival. In 2012, Ms. Abrams had the opportunity to be a sponsored young artist with Winter Opera St. Louis where she performed the role of Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos, covered Musetta in La Bohème, and performed in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical review: A Grand Night for Singing. Ms. Abrams has also performed with Opera Fort Collins, Loveland Opera Theater, Victorian Lyric Opera, and Opera Classica Europa in Bad Schwalbach, Germany as an apprentice artist. Additional operatic credits include Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Giannetta in L’Elisir d’Amore and Miss Pinkerton in The Old Maid and the Theif.

A passionate performer of Jewish music, Ms. Abrams was featured as a soloist in Martin Bresnick’s puppet opera, Der Signál, with the Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra during the 10th Annual Celebration of Jewish Arts and Culture at Charter Oak Cultural Center in October of 2014. As an active performer of art song, Ms. Abrams has collaborated with various musicians throughout the New England region to create diverse and accessible art song recitals. In April of 2015, Ms. Abrams and pianist Michael Korman presented a recital featuring the works of Schönberg, Ruth Schönthal, Previn, and Weill with the Maurice Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Hartford.

Since the winter of 2016, Rachel has been an active performer with Lollipop Opera Outreach. This touring opera company brings the joy of opera to thousands of school children throughout New England. This season, she will perform the roles of the Mother/Witch in Hansel and Gretel, Babe in The Three Pigs – A Pig Tale, and participate in the premiere of a new interactive “culinary” opera adventure: A Fairytale Kitchen.

In addition to being a passionate performer and collaborator, Rachel is a private music educator dedicated to the success of her students. Ms. Abrams maintains a private studio of voice students out of her home in West Hartford, Connecticut. In addition to her private teaching studio, she is the alto section leader at St. James Episcopal Church in Farmington. She has also taught at Farmington Valley Academy Montessori in Avon, Arts Place in Cheshire and Summit Studios in Manchester.

As a voice teacher, Ms. Abrams provides her students with a holistic, healthy, and age appropriate technique based on her studies of vocal pedagogy, years of lessons from master teachers, and her personal experiences as a performer. Through personalized vocal exercises and repertoire assignments, students will learn how to achieve a proper vocal onset, management of air pressure, increase vocal stamina, and maximize vocal freedom through balanced resonance. While Ms. Abrams teaches "classical" technique, her students apply her pedagogy to all styles of singing including, but certainly not limited to: musical theater, jazz, gospel, barber shop, and even rock!

Before opening her own private studio in Connecticut, Ms. Abrams lived in St. Louis, Missouri where she taught throughout the region. While in Missouri, she served as an Adjunct Voice Instructor/Lecture Professor at East Central College and a Private Voice and Music Instructor at St. John's School of the Arts.

In addition to her teaching experience in the Missouri area, Rachel was a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Northern Colorado, where she was an assistant instructor for Music Survey and Music and World Cultures classes.

Ms. Abrams holds a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Northern Colorado and a Bachelor of Music degree from San José State University. She lives in West Hartford with her husband Ben and their anti-social diva cat, Bonnie. She is currently accepting new students!

*** Specialties ***
I teach classical technique, specifically focusing on proper resonance and breath control. This method can be highly useful to broadway, jazz, popular or any other style of singing.

BA of Music, she has studied under renowned Romanian soprano, Virginia Zeani, Met Opera baritone Mark Oswald, and internationally acclaimed bel canto pedagogue Joan Patenaude-Yarnell. She is also a disciple of Bulgarian piano virtuoso Tzvetan Konstantinov. Susanna serves on the board of the The International Master Institute of Music "Leopold Godowsky", Inc.

Susanna instructs on proper intercostal support and the alignment of the vowels is emphasized to create long, seamless lines. Support is accompanied by a mixing of the registers to promote even vocal resonance up and down the scale. A wide range of literature may be explored, including opera, lieder, oratorio, and classical musical theatre in all voice types.

Susanna now serves as President/CEO of her own private company here in Washington, DC and as a board member of the The International Master Institute of Music "Leopold Godowsky" in McLean, VA. She currently resides in Dupont Circle.

--Student Consultations--
Accepting new students for classical and musical theater genres only. Students should have the availability to practice 5-7 days per week, 60 mins per day. For your consultation, please either bring a piece from the classical voice repertoire or a piece of classical musical theater. Lessons should be recorded (iPhone is fine).

--M Institute for the Arts (Georgetown) Location--
Baby Grand Piano
Music Stand
Large Room
Professional Recording Equipment
Music Library

-Dupont Circle Location-
Electric Piano
Large Room
5 Min Walk from Dupont Circle Metro

--Recitals/Performances--
Available.

--Ages Accepted--
A child's voice should be mature enough to safely embark on the rigors classical training. Please feel free to schedule a consultation to see if your child is ready for lessons.

--Scheduling--
I do not update my TakeLessons scheduler, as I have students at various different studios, including my own conservatory in Georgetown. I have my own scheduler outside of TakeLessons. Please select your first-choice time slot on TakeLessons and we will go from there!

ts. I welcome all ages including adult beginners. Bilingual lessons offered

n is a fun experience improving and creating music.