Endowed with boundless energy, brilliance, rigor, and skills, Victoria towers above other music teachers I have known for her uncanny ability to understand where their pupils are coming from, their endowments and deficiencies, and then working next to them to pull or push them up so they can reach their untapped potential. Her classes are a joy, a blend of theory, performance, and composition. Having almost never done music before I soon learned an extraordinary amount from her about a broad range of subjects. Besides learning about theory and composition, my main interests, much of what I learned from her I have now brought into my cross-cultural research on music and strongly colors what I compose.
Ricardo Godoy
Professor
Heller School for Social Policy and Management
Brandeis University rgodoy@brandeis.edu
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When teaching a child to play an instrument, one should find a balance between constant improvement of technique and skills and keeping the process enjoyable and fun for a child. Victoria walks that fine line with pedagogical professionalism and true passion for teaching music.
Victoria creates a varied and stimulating individual program for each child, based on a student's age, level, interests and personality, for an optimum level of challenge for that particular student. The program incorporates a number of components, such as songs, etudes, exercises, music theory, rhythm, solfeggio. The lessons are dynamic and Victoria carefully guides her students through challenging parts ensuring great rate of progress while maintaining the student's excitement about learning to play the piano.
Other than the lessons, Victoria arranges recitals for her students several times a year. Each recital is carefully planned and is truly a celebration of music and the students' achievements. She also incorporates student duets into the recital program which gives them an opportunity to learn a new skill and get to know each other.
My 6 y.o. daughter started taking lessons with Victoria a year ago and is looking forward to each lesson. She enjoys all parts of her program, practices her homework on her own, and loves performing at the recitals. She shows great progress in her technique and skills, and has developed love of music and the instrument.
We are truly lucky to have Victoria as a music teacher for our daughter.
Kate Anderson kateand80@gmail.com
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Starting from the beginning of our lessons Victoria showed herself as a person with a high energy fusion reactor who is absolutely focused on music. But what is most interesting is the matter of a fact that our first piano teacher - Victoria - turned out is that kind of a human who has extraordinary pedagogical abilities. Which is the most crucial factor for us. Because, all materials are prepared very thorough and focused on the all-time-fun and families collaborative. Sent kid - involved all. :)
Victor Brunkо wildneuro@gmail.com
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Victoria's pedagogy approach is unique.
Not only she sees the potential in her students, but she masterfully helps the learners discover their talents and carefully facilitates their growth.
Victoria gets to know and appreciate her students as individuals, with their own learning styles and objectives, her pedagogical philosophy is the same for all: while not always easy, learning to play piano should and can be an enjoyable journey for children and adults alike.
Each student's repertoire is carefully selected and adapted for every student: from exercises, to etudes, to performance pieces, enabling each learner to showcase his/her skills and rich content.
In her pedagogy, Victoria blends in music grammar (solfege/solfeggio), music literature and piano practicing, giving her students a whole picture of the music world. She also approaches teaching music at an interdisciplinary level: by encouraging her learners to explore their creativity in other areas of arts, such as painting or singing (with a rationale behind: if a learner likes to draw, it can be blended into learning playing piano: through stories drawn and then supported by music compositions).
She also masterfully creates an outlet for her learners' hard work through regular recitals, which are an excellent opportunity to not only showcase their skills, but contributes into their social development.
Victoria is creativity driven: a lesson doesn't end as the time runs out, as there are elements of blended learning carefully incorporated into her pedagogical approach. She stays in touch remotely throughout the week (by encouraging her students to send to her recordings of their playing for evaluation).
The spectrum of Victoria's pedagogical expertise is vasts: from 3.5. year old children to adult learners, novices and those already exposed to playing piano.
It will not be an overstatement to say, that Victoria facilitates conceptual change in her teaching: from being skeptical and thinking that it is impossible to learn hot to play piano to true interest and ability to play.
Victoria is a true mentor and guide into the magical world of music.
Anastasia_Tolu@post.harvard.edu