Piano Lessons in Mount Pleasant, NY

Instruments: Piano Keyboard

Did you have a teacher that inspired you to go into music? How did they inspire you?
All of my teachers could be said to be inspirations. My first teacher, who was only a few blocks away from me in my hometown, inspired me to put work in every work, to inch up further in my progress. The painstaking first 10 years of my childhood under her tutelage, where I devoted 1 hour a week to lessons no matter the season or weather, allowed me to forge a foundation from which I did not fail. I dream of finding students who may have this as well, so that I can pay this amazing gift forward, from my first late teacher, Ms. Esther Pfeiffer, who was a truly dedicated woman of music and who was able to know of my progress 10 years after lessons. I hope to learn of students who have had the same story from my own teaching.

Why did you choose your primary instrument?
I always had a piano around me in my house, and my father was an amateur pianist. He was always enchanted by the piano, and is the kind of individual who really notices what his teachers are teaching, whether or not he has luck. I am grateful for this example of one who takes his instruction seriously, because it inspired me to start taking piano lessons at the age of 6. From there, practicing was encouraged, and sometimes enforced by my parents, until there was a point in high school that I recognized what I had learned as a great gift. After that point, that initial flame was only further fed by an appetite to learn as much as I possibly could, and play with the same passion as the musical heroes I had acquired. Hanging onto every note of a musical hero is its own source of learning and inspiration.

What musical accomplishments are you most proud of?
I am grateful for the moments at a restaurant or bar, where I enjoy making music-- it's a great thing to be able to share the amazing force that brings all human beings together, and every performance is an accomplishment in my mind. Some key things lately have been the ability to share the music that I've written personally at clubs in the New York Area, and I hope to share more music with the world, through the passing years. I am also very proud of students that take what I teach them and use it to enrich their lives. Maybe this is in a small way or maybe this is in a large way; it doesn't matter to me, I just enjoy the things my students accomplish.

When did you decide to become a professional musician? Was it a gradual decision or was there a defining moment for you?
In high school, I knew I wanted to be a musician. By about Freshman year of high school, I knew that this was what I wanted to do. It may have been the summer I worked at a summer camp for elementary school children, that I learned that this was what I wanted to do. It was my greatest passion at the time, and such passion has never subsided. I have taken to this pursuit through thick and thin, and I only wish to use my gifts to bring forth catharsis and positive changes to the world. I remember a moment of awakening as a student at a summer camp at Stanford Jazz Workshop, that made me fully realize, in that moment, this was what I was going to do. There have been many moments since of assurance and others of discouragement, but I still have a strong sense that this is what I am meant to do.

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