As a music teacher, my goals are to inspire my students to love and enjoy music, have fun playing it, and to become self-sufficient. The learning process never ends (even I continue to study!), but what we'll work toward in lessons is your being able to take a piece of music, sightread it by yourself, and add your own musicality and emotion. I will give you the tools to do this on your own. Whatever makes you special as a person will shine through when you play, once you have the proper technique. Every person is a vehicle through which music is presented. Two people could play the same piece of music correctly, and each performance would be different. This is the greatest part about music; it is an expression of one's self.
I divide the lesson into two main parts: technique study, and music pieces. For piano students, I work on finger position and posture, and exercises to create facility. For woodwinds, I focus on embouchure, tone, vibrato, and other elements specific to each instrument. I put a large emphasis on scales, chords, rhythms, and music theory, so you get a complete knowledge of how music is structured. As you learn each piece of the puzzle, you start to understand how music is structured, and better yet, that it all makes sense! I teach classical technique, but usually eventually venture into jazz, as I have extensively studied both.
The pacing of the lessons is completely individual and I tailor each one especially for the student. I push you to learn just above what is easy for you, so that learning to play is challenging, but not frustrating. I develop a personalized lesson plan that fits your unique capabilities. I will always talk to and work with the parents as well, to make sure that there is a very positive association created with music. The parents are instrumental in the lesson process, as they are helping the child learn to make time during the week to practice. And if you are an adult, it's not too late to learn. You might work differently then a child would, and that's what's exciting. Every person learns in their own unique way. My job is to find the way each person's brain operates best and teach to that.
This is the greatest part about music; it is an expression of one's self.
Stephanie's first instrument is piano. She started formal piano lessons at the age of five in Tucson, AZ. After briefly studying the violin in elementary school, at age ten, she was struck by the saxophone and began her band career. In high school she played in the Tucson High Magnet School marching, jazz, and concert bands, and served as drum major. In high school she also played oboe and English horn in the concert band and orchestra, as well as with other regional orchestras. As a high school senior, Stephanie was honored with "first in the state" in the Arizona All-State band competition, and played in the saxophone section in the Arizona All-State Jazz Band. She was also a saxophone soloist with the All-State Orchestra, and was featured as a soloist with the Arizona Symphonic Winds.
Stephanie earned a degree in Jazz Studies at the University of Arizona, where she intensely studied saxophone, flute, piccolo, clarinet, and oboe. She played in numerous wind ensembles and jazz bands, as well as marching in the Pride of Arizona Marching Band and in the select pep band. In 1997, she was chosen in a national search for the Disney-Grammy All-American College Orchestra, and lived at Disney World for a summer as a musician. Stephanie also had a successful saxophone quartet called SaxMania, which won a 1998 Downbeat Magazine award.
In 1999, Stephanie began her graduate studies in saxophone at the Hartt School of Music and studied with jazz legend Jackie McLean. It was there in Connecticut that she began playing in the Rob Zappulla Big Band. Soon she started to use her multiple woodwind capabilities in pit orchestras for musicals at the Hartt School and around Connecticut. Stephanie became a New Yorker in 2003, and enjoys being a freelance jazz and woodwind player. She's played for dozens of regional theaters in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, as well as playing many summers at the Monomoy Theater on Cape Cod.
Stephanie has been teaching piano, saxophone, flute, clarinet, and oboe for over eighteen years, and loves every minute of it. The only thing that matches her love of teaching is performing, which she has done most often with her groundbreaking quintet, BIPOLAR in New York City. You can find BIPOLAR's newest album, Euphrates, Me Jane, on iTunes, or at www.bipolarjazz.com
