About

I’m a piano, flute, and composition teacher who runs a private studio in West St. Paul, Minnesota. I’m also a composition teacher at the St. Paul Conservatory of Music. I started teaching piano and flute in 1994, and have a total of 18 years of private teaching experience. In addition to private and small-group music teaching, I’ve also taught art and been a substitute teacher in elementary and junior high classrooms and taught a workshop at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

I have an M.A. in music composition from Eastern Washington University, and a B.A. in art education with a minor in music from St. Catherine University. During my time at these universities I took lessons and courses in piano, piano pedagogy, and flute. I am a member of the Association of Private Piano Instructors (APPI), The Gordon Institute for Music Learning (GIML), and the American Eurhythmics Society (AES).

As a music teacher, I’m influenced by Orff, Dalcroze, Gordon’s Music Learning Theory, and contemplative pedagogy. For more about my teaching, see my teaching philosophy page.

Since 2018, I’ve been taking courses in Dalcroze Eurhythmics and Gordon’s Music Learning Theory, and am actively seeking certification in both.

In addition to teaching music and art, I’ve served as music director for the Spokane Children’s Theater, played flute and piano for several musicals, weddings and church services, art galleries, private parties, jazz jam sessions, and played keyboard and auxiliary percussion in The Triumphant Returns, an indie-rock band in Spokane. I was also an adjudicator for the APPI music composition festival from 2014-16, and for the St. Paul Piano Teacher’s Association music composition competition in 2019, 2020, and 2022.

(My first name is pronounced sha-VONN)