What a lesson with me is like
I sit next to you, or next to your child. I watch hands. I listen for the one thing that will make the next note easier, and we work on that. I don’t rush, and I don’t drill for the sake of drilling. When a student plays something well, I tell them exactly what was good about it so they can find it again.
Progress in this work is quiet and cumulative. A bow hold that finally stays relaxed through a whole piece. A shift that used to go sharp and now lands. A kid who walks in dragging their case and walks out humming their review piece. I notice those, and I say so.
A studio rooted in Hendricks County
I teach from my studio in downtown Brownsburg at Elevate Offices, a few minutes from Avon and Plainfield and about twenty from downtown Indianapolis. Families come from across Hendricks County and the west side of Indy. The room is warm, there’s a chair for the parent who wants to sit in, and I keep a stack of sharpened pencils because we’re always marking something.
I teach in the community I play in. The Hendricks Symphony rehearses just down the road, and on a given Saturday I might be coaching a twelve-year-old through her first vibrato in the morning and tuning up for a Brahms concert in the evening. My students see that, and I think it matters. Music is something you do, not something you finish.
Who I teach
Three-year-olds at their first Twinkle class. Middle schoolers learning to shift into third position. High schoolers preparing all-state audition excerpts. Adult beginners who always meant to play. Returners who put the instrument down at sixteen and are ready to pick it back up. Every one of them gets the same attention and the same honest feedback.
What I want students to leave with
Technique that holds up. A real voice on the instrument. And the feeling that music belongs to them, not to their teacher.