About Colin
Colin, a highly educated and experienced music teacher, is dedicated to fostering lifelong joy in music-making among his students. With a diverse background in music composition, theory, piano, and cello, Colin offers a comprehensive approach to teaching that emphasizes posture, movement, tension, and kinaesthetic and aural awareness. He specializes in online instruction and provides lessons from his studio, offering a range of services including composition, music theory, and RCM exam preparation.
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Music gives me immeasurable joy; through teaching, I hope to equip students with the skills which can support their lifelong joy in music-making. In instrumental music teaching, I emphasize holistic attention to posture, movement, and tension, as these aspects of playing are often the most impactful to adjust. From an interdisciplinary body of knowledge (a classical performance background together with studies in somatics and experimental music), I highlight strategies for kinaesthetic and aural awareness which can support students' journeys towards fluency--and ultimately joy--in performance. I also distill these strategies into concrete practice techniques which can facilitate students' ownership over their learning and maximize the efficacy of their practice time. In composition teaching, I emphasize each student's development of a unique voice, and of a suite of techniques aligned with that voice. Concretely, I cultivate students' awareness of how to nurture the particular world emerging in a given piece-in-progress; I emphasize this regardless of style, and I draw on a wide repertoire knowledge (Western art music, jazz/creative music, pop music, experimental music, sound art) to support students who want to pursue any combination or conversation between these approaches to composition.
Name: Colin (Full name will be provided upon registration)
Age: 30's
Gender: male
I have a PhD from the University at Buffalo (SUNY), an MPhil from the University of Huddersfield, and a BM summa cum laude from the University of Michigan. In all three degrees, my major was music composition, while I also did extensive study in music theory, piano, and cello. My principle teachers include... composition: William Bolcom, Betsy Jolas, David Felder, and Aaron Cassidy piano: Philip Thomas and Wendy Lee cello: Anthony Elliott and Jonathan Golove music theory: Andrew Mead, Kevin Korsyn, Ramon Satyendra, Charles Smith
BMI student composer award (2006) Presidential Fellowship, University at Buffalo (SUNY) (2011-2015) Dissertation Fellowship, University at Buffalo (SUNY) (2015) Stipend, Academy Schloss Solitude (2015) Mark Diamond Research Fund Award (2018)
Music theory: private counterpoint study with Elwood Derr (2006); atonal music theory with Andrew Mead (2006) Composition private study and masterclasses with: Michael Finnissy (2008), Franklin Cox (2009), Brian Ferneyhough, Enno Poppe, Rebecca Saunders, Pierluigi Billone (2010), Augusta Read Thomas, Yehudi Wynter (2013), Chaya Czernowin, Ming Tsao (2015), Josh Fineberg, Chinary Ung (2016) Festival participation as a composer: Darmstadt (2010, 2014); June in Buffalo (2013, 2016); Northwestern University New Music Conference (2014); Academy Schloss Solitude Young Composer's Academy (2015)
English
Rates and Studio Policies
Registration Fee: $25.00 (One-time lifetime registration fee may be used by all family members)
Rates for instruction:
30 minute private lesson: $39.00
45 minute private lesson: $49.00
60 minute private lesson: $59.00
Travel charge: additional $15.00 per visit (for lessons in a client's home as opposed to my studio)
1. Cancellation Policy
Lessons not cancelled or rescheduled with at least 24 hours notice are billable to the client and payable to the teacher. This does not of course apply to travel fees unless the notice is effectively given at the door and the teacher has travelled to the location.
2. Cessation (quitting) Policy
A client must provide a 2 lesson notice period to stop lessons. So a weekly student needs to give 2 weeks of notice, a biweekly student works out to 3 weeks notice and a twice weekly student works out to a week of notice.
3. Illness Policy
Lessons cancelled due to illness or extraordinary circumstances with less than 24 hours notice remain billable to the client and payable to the teacher.
BAH teachers are encouraged to offer a make-up lesson at a future date in the interest of client relations and general goodwill. This only makes sense as teaching a student with the flu for example, will ruin the rest of your week's employment.
No more than 2 lessons may be made up due to illness within a 60 day period.
4. Rescheduling Policy
Any lesson can be cancelled or rescheduled with at least 24 hours notice.
Summer Vacation and Extended Absence Policy
Clients may schedule longer absences for trips etc. 24 hours notice is required.
It is normal and typical for students and about 20% of our teachers to schedule a break in the summer. We do not enforce a notice period (see cessation of lessons) at the end of a long summer break.
5. Evaluation Period
There are no free trial lessons with Beethoven at Home but we do offer a 2 lesson evaluation period where it is easy to try out a teacher. There are no free lessons during the evaluation period and clients may choose to discontinue the lessons at any time by providing the required 24 hours notice. After the student's 3rd lesson the required 2 lesson notice period will apply (see cessation of lessons above).
Online lessons
Colin can provide online instruction. While other platforms are possible BAH strongly recommends the use of the Zoom video conferencing platform as it is optimized for music lessons and audio quality.
Colin's Studio Location
Colin offers lessons from his studio. Please note that map locations are based on the postal code of the teachers studio. address will be released to you if needed.