Andrea with her Steinway in her home studio
Andrea maintains a private teaching studio of approximately 30 students based out of her home (The Church House) in Kingston, NY. Lessons are offered in time periods of 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or one hour. All lessons are prepaid monthly.
Andrea’s approach to teaching helps to teach students not only musical skills, but also important life skills such as discipline, time management, motivation, the significance of different perspectives, and problem solving. As the primary reason for preparing music is to be able to perform it, Andrea seeks out as many performance opportunities as she can for students. In the past these have included playing preludes at church services, performing at retirement homes, and even hiring a trio of tuba, trombone, and trumpet students to perform at her own wedding!
In teaching music, Andrea’s lessons involve learning to read music, studying theory, scales, improvisation, and composition, as well as how to play in an ensemble setting. Students in Andrea’s studio perform in an annual recital that Andrea hosts. The recital features solo performers, duets, original compositions and arrangements by students, as well as collaborative performances with Andrea on piano accompanying some of the performers.
Andrea sees the importance of looking at the big picture in studying music, so on top of learning and preparing pieces, she regularly prepares projects for her students to work on, which have included such tasks as doing research on composers and the eras that they lived in, as well as listening assignments. She has hosted master class seminars on preparing for performances, as well as managing performance anxiety.
Students of Andrea have gone on to receive perfect scores in NYSSMA All-State Solo Festivals, and have been selected to perform in elite high school ensembles, as well as gained admittance into music colleges throughout the state.