“Are you looking for piano or Violin lessons either for yourself or for your children to learn to play the INSTRUMENTS, as They should be played?
Then look no further” – T. Nershirs
Are you looking for piano or violin lessons either for yourself or for your children to learn to play the instruments, as they should be played? Then look no further. I feel that I am highly qualified to recommend Raisa & Yakov because my children took lessons from them for over 18 years! My oldest daughter was 13 years old when we first started taking lessons from Raisa. We continued this happy relationship until my youngest daughter was 18 years old. During this time all five of my children took piano lessons with Raisa for varying lengths of time, and the older three children also learned string instruments: violin, viola, and cello under the direction of Raisa’s husband, Yakov Voldman. Before this time, we were taking piano lessons from a variety of teachers. One thing I found in common among all of the teachers was that none of them taught “serious” lessons. It seemed as though the teachers would say, “That’s nice,” no matter how the children played the music and hand them a lollipop. This type of piano teaching encourages laziness and sloppy piano playing. You are only wasting your money.
Raisa teaches a student to play music as it should be played with proper timing, tempo, dynamics, and emotion. When a child plays a piece correctly it instills confidence in them—they know they played it properly. Raisa will not let you proceed until you are playing the piece properly. Over the years, my children played in many competitions, winning trophies, and one time even a cash prize! Best of all, my oldest two children received a full music scholarship to attend the local university! Raisa definitely knows how to prepare her students for competitions and auditions! It is my personal belief that music makes one smarter! It gives a person a sense of achievement and accomplishment. It teaches good character traits such as diligence, persistence, and accomplishment. Once a piano teacher in her 60’s said to me that at her age, she would not likely still be doing ballet if she had studied that when she was younger. But she could still greatly enjoy playing the piano, use it in church, and teach lessons for an income. My oldest two daughters have had long-standing jobs as church pianists, and they have enjoyed many “gigs” playing piano, violin, and cello for weddings. They have taught piano lessons for many years. Having learned how to play piano from Raisa, they know the method of teaching lessons. They had her excellent example to follow! They were also able to teach music theory at music camps and the local community music school because Raisa incorporates music theory in the piano lessons. Without hesitation, I can whole heartedly recommend Raisa Voldman or anyone else she feels is competent to teach at her music school to teach any student the proper way to play music. Don’t settle for anything else!
Happy piano playing!
-Toni Nershirs.
