Penfield, NY Classical Piano Lessons

unity to perform at spring and winter recitals.

I am currently an active performer and music educator in New York City. I graduated with honors from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA with degrees in Performance and Audio Engineering,

Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions about lessons or scheduling!

ce and compose music for myself and other artists as well.

I look forward to getting to know you!

ic with others and seeing their joy from being able play for themselves.

*** Lesson Details ***

14 years experience

2 optional recitals per year (Spring and Christmas)

Ages 4 through adult

, taught me how to read music and play keyboard. Music is something that can never escape my life! I practice my instruments on a daily basis and avidly compose my own music as well. Besides being involved with piano at school, I was a member of the William Paterson Symphony Orchestra where I played second violin, as well as a member of the school's flute ensemble. My goal is to have a career in which I can instill within my students the same love, endearment and appreciation for music that has grown with me over the years.

I am someone who truly has a passionate love for music, as it is what my whole life is about and brings me immense happiness on a daily basis. I am not just a robotic teacher who is providing lessons as a financial opportunity, but someone who honestly cares about the growth of a student's musical ability and love for music itself.

A huge part of music is not just learning how to play the notes correctly, but to come to understand the amazement that can be experienced from the act of playing an instrument. To be the most successful in any music related business, I feel that it is essential to love what you do and to practice as much as you possibly can. Love and practice can take someone very far if they are truly dedicated to their art.

Witnessing a student enjoy what they're doing while improving their skills in the process is an amazing feeling for both student and teacher. I want to show people what it is I love about music so much, and hopefully instill within them the same love and passion.

I would like possible future students to know that I am not like any other instructor, as generic as this may sound. I have a true, fervent passion for music which I yearn to share with others.
Whether music is a way of life or just a hobby for someone, it can be something that sticks with them for the remainder of their lives and brings great happiness and enjoyment.

. I understand full well that adult students have many other obligations, and I am happy to work around them as long as you are willing to learn.

mprovisatory funk band, have been a faculty accompanist at a university and a Suzuki class accompanist, have been a collaborative pianist for all sizes of chamber ensembles (vocal and instrumental), have performed in Jordan Hall on accordion giving a world premiere of a local Boston composer's work, busked the streets of my college town and played weddings on accordion, taught fifth grade, junior high, and high school band and choir at a public school, and helped create an educational outreach ensemble, to name some of the most memorable. Music is a very personal journey, I've come to realize, which is why lessons are always student-centered and planned according to your needs.

--- Lengthy Bio ---

Breanna Ellison, lauded for performances "flawless in execution and vivid in characterization" (Boston Musical Intelligencer), is a dynamic and highly sought-after horn player throughout the Midwest and East Coast. Breanna has played with numerous groups throughout the US, including Boston's conductorless chamber orchestra A Far Cry, the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, the Ad Astra Festival Orchestral, Michael Tilson Thomas's New World Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Radius Ensemble, the Topeka Symphony Orchestra, and currently plays in the Hays Symphony Orchestra, among others. Recently, she served as principal horn with the Geneva Light Opera in their production of Così Fan Tutte, acted as section coach and chaperone in the Boston Youth Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2015 European Tour, and this summer served on faculty at the High Plains Music Camp as a collaborative pianist and hornist.

Equally at home in symphonic, opera, and chamber music worlds alike, Breanna has performed in music festivals across Europe and the United States. In 2011, she served as principal horn at the Eutiner Opernfestspiele in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. She attended the Colorado College Music Festival in summer 2012, and later that summer attended the Ameropa Chamber Music Festival in Prague, Czech Republic. While in Prague, Breanna performed with an international chamber group that took second place in Ameropa's International Concertante Competition. The quartet performed Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante K295b in the Czech Philharmonic's Rudolfinum, Dvořák Hall with Camerata Filarmonica Bohemia. In the summer of 2015, by invitation, Breanna studied with world-renowned hornist and pedagogue Frøydis Ree Wekre in Oslo, Norway.

Holding performance degrees in both horn and piano from the University of Kansas, Breanna attended the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Cortona, Italy as a pianist in 2010. There, she met kindred spirits amongst the composers attending and later that year, invited them to Kansas to hear their commissions performed by her brass quintet, the Lawrence 5. The concert served as both premieres of their works and as a benefit concert to aid in the building of schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan through the Central Asia Institute. While at the University of Kansas, Breanna was a recipient of the Zakoura Collaborative Pianist Scholarship. Much of her pianistic time was spent collaborating with instrumentalists and vocalists from all realms, often in premieres of new works by colleagues in composition. Regarding hornistic studies while studying at KU, she was assistant then fourth horn of the Topeka Symphony Orchestra, the first job she won at age 20.

Breanna graduated with honors from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA under full Presidential and Merit scholarship with her master's degree in horn performance, studying with James Sommerville, principal horn of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. During her time there, she also earned her Music-In-Education Concentration under the guidance of movement-founder Larry Scripp. She received her undergraduate degrees from the University of Kansas School of Music in horn performance, studying with Paul Stevens, and piano performance, studying with Jack Winerock. Breanna is currently Interim Professor of Horn at Fort Hays State University and continues to be a collaborative pianist at the University and throughout the state of Kansas. When not pursuing musical endeavors, she enjoys creating raw desserts, planning her worldwide backpacking trip, and learning mad, Balkan rips to busk with on accordion.