Piano Lessons in Syracuse

I graduated from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music with honors. I enjoy teaching students how to read and write music as well as play beginning and intermediate classical piano. I also teach jazz, gospel and church music. I spent over 20 years in competitive New York City making a living as a professional jazz and gospel/church pianist. Well in New York city, I had the honor of playing with great jazz musicians such as Larry Coryell, Hubert Laws, Jimmy Cobb, John Pattitucci, Brian Blade, Gerry Mulligan, Woody Herman and many others, I also was blessed to have played the piano chair with the Westchester Philharmonic when they performed the Duke Ellington Sacred Concerts. I also teach music theory. Regardless of the style of music, I always start with technique, scales, arpeggios and body position. I also enjoy teaching memorization techniques as well as other practice techniques to make performance easier. Having overcome performance anxiety myself, I teach this to my students as well. My jazz students are encouraged to listen to jazz, develop their ears and learn how to improvise. I also teach jazz history as a way to broaden the students' understanding of the music. Often church musicians ask me how to learn to play by ear and how to interpret chord symbols in this context. These are things that I enjoy teaching as well as gospel, composition and arranging.