Testimonials – Tony Hoss

Raisa Voldman is one of the greatest teachers I’ve ever had, not just in music, but in life in general. She looks at you as a person first before anything, not just some student that can be transformed into a piano playing machine. That helps in being comfortable around her (when I first played for Raisa, I was very nervous; she gives off an intimidating feeling, but not bad! You just know that when you are about to play for her, you are playing for someone who knows what she is doing, and that it’s pointless to even try and hide mistakes from her because she will notice them), and also, from my own experience, in setting expectations for you as a student.

What I mean by expectations is what kind of student you are; are you someone taking for fun, are you serious and want a career in piano, etc. She knows how much a person can take, and if the pressure becomes too much, or something like that happens, she understands, and will try to make you feel better before anything.

As a past student of hers, she helped my playing tremendously. She helped me unlearn many bad habits, and start to develop good, PROPER habits/technique. That is not something easy to do; it is much easier to teach a student something new than to unlearn habits that have become ingrained into your muscles from a few good years of sloppy playing and lazy practicing. Her patience and creative ways to help me relearn proper technique (along with my own desire to play correctly) did exactly that, through much practice and effort.

Raisa is a wonderful person, musician, and teacher. I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather take from; in fact, I consider it a blessing to learn with her, and to be her student. She is strict, resolved, a bit intimidating sometimes, patient, understanding, kind, and one heck of a pianist!! Watching her play the piano made me want to major in piano for college because I was inspired to play piano more after seeing her play.

-Tony Hoss