Evan M
Instruments: Piano, Voice, Saxophone, Keyboard
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Musical Theater, Opera, Showtunes

Through my undergraduate and graduate school years, I have held secular and liturgical studios and teaching experience in many varieties. I have had 6 years' experience as a choir director and 6 years alongside that as a private piano teacher. My specialty is classical music, but I believe that music as a cultural language can cross much more than disciplines, and I encourage that mindset with my students. I believe in self-efficiency in practice and performance, and self-efficacy in review and feedback. I believe demonstrating and guiding students in the technique of practicing is critical, and I lead with providing the motivation that says they, the student, can control their enjoyment of their instrument. By providing critical and lateral thinking when applying new concepts, the responsibility of comprehension rests solely on the student, allowing them to own and solidify what they know and how they acquired that knowledge. With a student-centered philosophy, I believe my role as a teacher is to eventually provide another, trusted set of ears to verify and gauge their progress, and ultimately, to collaborate in the joy of making music.

When considering texts and books for students, I believe that Hal Leonard texts are a standard and acceptable form of teaching. For students who may have personalized needs, there are accompanying tools that can be of use, and I try to use those as necessary. Beginning with any student at any level, I first try to engage with them on a purely audio level. By interacting with their instrument from a simply aural perspective, I can get a sense of how they respond to sound; for example, how they attempt to find patterns on a keyboard, or how responsive they are to consonance against dissonance. In finding out how they understand sound, I can get a better sense of how they can grasp certain subjects of spatial relationships on paper or how that audio responsiveness might transfer when going through a text. I attempt to accommodate for each student, and this accommodation does not necessarily mean going through a book front to back is the most effective means of reaching that student.