Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Looking for a teacher, again... Advice please

My 7yo son has taken lessons for 1.25 years now. He gets along with the
teacher well, who demands a lot from the kids, but at the same time has
a pretty good grasp of what works with each kid. He emphasizes techniques,
how to control touch and sound, etc, and he really hammers on the interpretation
of the pieces. (The guy is Russian, I understand there is some sort of a
stereotype?) There are lots of recitals and workshops, which my son loves
(he is a very social kid...). My son likes classical music, so this is what
he gets most of the time. These days he is playing pieces such as some in
Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach and Schumann's Album for the Young, and
easy pieces by a large variety of composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn,
Burgmuller.... He likes piano reasonably well, is pretty good with his
practice routine (30-40 minutes a day, 5 days a week).

We've been very happy with the situation, but we are about to move to Ann
Arbor, Michigan...

I know very few people in the area, but with a major university in town
and (I heard) lots of musical events, there should be lots of good piano
teachers around. But I'm not experienced looking for teachers, we found
the current one pretty much by chance (I talked to the director at a local
music school and he recommended this teacher). I want to start by calling
community music schools and the music department at the university. Since
the current teacher's style works well for my son, I'd like to find someone
similar. Does this make sense or am I setting up unnecessary limits? Will
the information in the previous paragraph give them a good idea about what
I'm looking for? What other resources should I look into? I'd like to
hear insights from teachers and other parents. Thanks!

There is a teacher in Ann Arbor, who teches adjunct at the unversity, but I think she takes a few private students as well. She studied with Nadia Boulanger (a great French teacher), and she is a warm, wonderful person. Her name is Marianne Ploger. Her contact info can be found on her site:
http://marianneploger.com/

Again, I don't know if she has any openings, but I'm sure she could direct you to some other teachers if so.

The University of Michigan has a wonder music school, and many fine teachers. There is a strong culture of music in the community, so finding a teacher shouldn't be difficult. I'll be visiting friends on faculty at Interlochen this weekend, and will ask for recommendations, but I suspect that you'll have no trouble ferreting out the good ones on your own.

John

University of Michigan has a killer music school. You will find a good teacher.

Wow, thanks!

Morodiene, thank you very much for providing a specific name! I looked at her website quickly and her research sounds very interesting and she seems to be such a highly qualified teacher! I will definitely contact her.

John and Karen, it's good to know that the UM music school has such good reputation! But one thing that I don't quite understand is who in the music school would teach 7yo little kids. Do professors teach little kids (I'm probably wrong, but I thought they just deal with college students most of the time)? Are graduate students generally good at working with kids?

And John, thank you so much for willing to ask around for me. I can't believe you are willing to do this for a stranger... If it turns out that you need more info. about my son, I will PM you.

Music professors do teach 7 yr old kids, but the professor might ask if he/her could give your kid an audition 1st. Well at least the more select teachers always do that, my present teacher did.

Graduate students...it depends working with kids well comes as a natural talent, it's something that you have.

childofparadise2002 - Ann Arbor is a good size community, and because of the University's presence, a strong positive cultural influence. While one of the professors might take a 7 yr old, it's more likely they would know which teachers are producing quality students locally which are making it into the school of music.

You probably don't know about Interlochen yet, but after some time in Ann Arbor, you will undoubtedly learn about it. May even send your son there for a summer session. It's a fairly close-knit arts community, so asking around isn't hard to do.

You can also go to www.mtna.org and type in the zip code 48104 (or 48103) for Ann Arbor, for a list of teachers that are MTNA members.

Also, www.musicstaff.com will give you similar results.