 | I offer lessons in:- Accompanying
- Chamber Music Coaching
- Choral Performance
- Composition
- Choral Conducting
- Orchestral Conducting
- Ear Training
- French for Singers
- German for Singers
- Historical Performance
- Improvisation
- Instrumental Coaching
- Italian for Singers
- Music Appreciation
- Music History
- Basic Music Theory
- Intermediate Music Theory
- Advanced Music Theory
- Performance Techniques
- Classical Piano
- Early Childhood Piano
- Beginning Piano
- Sight Singing
- Vocal Coaching
- Classical Voice
- Broadway Voice
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Interested in taking lessons with Kenn?
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Kenn Gartner | Offering private lessons in
San Rafael, California |
Introduction
Kindly read the attached blogs, revised August 2009. I discuss what to look for trying to find a teacher. A number of things is mentioned which my adult students and kids' parents have found extremely useful. I make recommendations about piano purchase, whom to avoid as teachers--and what. etc. Please, feel free to email me with your comments. Incidentally, I was interviewed the other day for an ART SITE on the Web: it may be interesting to view and to hear--http://www.jeansmagazines.org/GrabIt/GartnerKenn/Bio.htm.
The Juilliard School recently raised requirements for those listed in its Private Teacher Directory. In addition to a complete resume, the teacher must document his public performance within the past ten years. It also required teachers cited in the Directory be able to provide outstanding references. Please check out those performances which you may be able to attend. (Attendance at ones teacher's performances is usually mandatory for a student: personal experience equated my attendance at my teachers' performances equivalent to my taking a dozen private paid piano lessons!)
At the moment--July 2009--I am one of but two on the Juilliard's Private Teacher Directory in California for Piano AND for Voice, and the only one in the Bay area. I was recently certified--NATIONALLY--as a Teacher of Voice by the Music Teachers National Association: one of 6 in California! Additionally, I was also certified--Nationally--by the MTNA as a Teacher of Piano: at the time of this writing, there are no others in Marin County. Steinway recently added me to their list of piano teachers, one of two in Marin County.
September 2008, I was elected Vice President, Board of Directors, Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute (BASOTI), the organization founded by Professor Sylvia Anderson of the San Francisco Conservatory. September 28, 2008, I presented an unusual debut recital with my friend, Soprano Margo Alexander, in San Francisco's Herbst Theatre. The audience indicated a rousing success. We also performed at the Redwood Performing Arts Center in Guerneville the preceding Labor Day weekend, a warm up for the Herbst. We gave a lecture/recital at the California Association of Professional Music Teachers (CAPMT) at their February convention, San Mateo. December 17, 2008, I performed "The Concert for Cornell," at the San Francisco Conservatory. Sponsored by our local Cornell Alumni Association, it helped raise funds for a local charity. I also review concerts for Classical Sonoma (http://www.classicalsonoma.org/). Log on to read my view of the concerts I have attended since 10/12/2008.
I specialize in the extremely gifted and/or serious piano or voice student. Age and level do not matter: beginners have fewer errors to correct. I have a Ph.D. in Piano Technique. Therefore, should you be interested in winning contests, getting into a music program, or generally improving your technique. I may be able to help you. I have also had success with the Asperger and Autistic student.
Here is a recent review:
SPONTANEOUS NOTES FALLING LIKE TECHNICAL PEARLS
IN GLORIOUS ORCHESTRATION
Kenn Gartner offers the music of Carl Maria von Weber
Victorian Englander House November 11, 2006
[The] Konzertstuck in F minor, Op. 79}, by Carl Maria von Weber, can be played only by someone who is at ease with gargantuan technique. Welcome to the world of Kenn Gartner. Along with The San Francisco Concerto Orchestra and under the baton of conductor Geoffrey Gallegos, [he] performed [the] IKonzertstuck for his Saturday audience at Victorian Englander House. The piece is interesting, requiring streams of cluster chord madness and delicate, seemingly spontaneous notes. At times, the orchestra and piano appear to splash through waves of fire. It is a long piece, a precise piece, an abstract romantic'-not always easy to hear, but fascinating to watch and Gartner's performance on piano was groundbreaking.
Jean Bartlett for San Francisco Virtuoso
My Teaching Background
I began to study piano at age two and a half. I first studied with my mother and was to be a violinist. However, after breaking two of the things (violins), my mother decided on something sturdier. My teachers included Cornell's John Kirkpatrick (Charles Ives' pianist), the Juilliard's Adele Marcus and Eduard Steuermann (Arnold Schoenberg's pianist), and NYU's Eugene List. With a Ph.D. is in Piano Technique and childhood experience in the Metropolitan Opera, I spend much time teaching piano (I was invited to give a Master Class in Piano Technique at the Shanghai Conservatory) and voice (I am a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing), performing, coaching, and accompanying. While a student at Cornell, I taught piano to the student overflow of Cornell's Music Department; at the Juilliard, I was selected to be a Graduate Teaching Assistant (Apprentice).
One New York reviewer put it very well:
"He represents the unique combination of outstanding music teacher and virtuoso pianist."
(F. Gutman: [I[N.Y. Staats-Zeitung{/I]).
My Teaching Philosophy
During our initial visit, whether for piano, voice, or other skill, I shall demonstrate a few things that we could do together. It is then up to the person to decide for him/herself if we are suited to each other. None of us are born knowing how to practice. I provide a detailed routine for you as an individual, a protocol to help you develop your abilities. You would bring a video camera--or a least a tape recorder--to record our time together and replay/retake the lesson you have just had. In addition, I try to telephone the student sometime during the week to bolster confidence, answer questions, review stuff that came up during the lesson. I ask the student to telephone me about ANY question.
I am available for vocal coaching. I joined The National Association of Teachers of Singing in 2006. In my first year, at the 2007 Singing Festival, one of my students took a first prize in one division (Music Theater) and a second prize in another (Art Song)! In September, 2008, this same student entered the San Francisco Conservatory with a scholarship in Voice, the ONLY student to graduate from the Marin School of the Arts (Novato) to have achieved this level of competance! (He is Tommy in Ray of Light's production of The Who's Rock Opera at the Victoria Theater, San Francisco, through November 7.) An 11 year old student won the only SUPERIOR rating in Voice at the Sonoma State California Music Educators Adjudication Festival in 2006, besting all other junior and senior high school students. (She has now, at the ripe age of 14 become the student of Pam Fry, Head of the Voice Department, San Francisco Conservatory!)
I accompany all genres: vocal or instrumental. Within the past few years I have accompanied all voices, choruses, clarinet and other woodwinds, trombone and other brass, and all the string instruments, in concerts, for practice, for recordings.
Rates And Availability
I have room for possibly two very serious or very gifted Piano and/or Voice students. (I should add that if the prospective student shows promise and a desire to work hard, I will find the room!) My studio is in San Rafael, Marin County, California, where I sit at one Steinway and the (piano) student sits at the other. Unlike some (The San Francisco Conservatory charges $100 for an audition!), I do not charge for auditions. I strongly suggest persons seeking lessons watch the teacher teach: IT IS YOUR JOB TO AUDITION ME! When you come to discuss our work together, I demonstrate things we will do to help you accomplish your goals. Then it is up to you to make an informed decision whether to continue our work together. References are available; results may be heard in concerts and contests.
Do not hesitate to call to discuss how I might be of service or of help to you. While I do not take every person who comes through the door, I may be able to recommend someone or provide you with advice.
I travel to one student's home, but she, too, has two instruments and pays my round trip travel time.
The question of distance a student may travel often arises: I received a call a few months ago asking if I had a 4 PM opening on Tuesdays. I did not at that moment, but I called the mother when one opened up. She informed me that they had found someone in their home town--I know that teacher, and the quality of her work is questionable. However, I defend parent's right to convenience: the local garage is certainly less expensive than your Lexus Dealer. I presently teach a student who used to come from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico: the student presently lives in Stockton and comes biweekly. Another who flies up from Torrance near L. A. I guess I may have built a "better mousetrap!" (My advice to young students about to apply to a college: do not be seduced by the name of the place--Harvard, Juilliard, etc.--but seek out a teacher with whom you would prefer to study! GO WHERE THE TEACHER IS! A couple of years ago, i went to Creston, Iowa, to study with an incredible teacher: I went where the teacher was; it was an incredible experience!
I discuss rates--and scholarships--with potential adult students or with the parents of prospective minor students at the time of our meeting. I do not discuss these things on the phone or the internet.
You may be interested in visiting:
http://www.kenngartner.com
(NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF SINGING INTERVIEW AND BIO)
http://www.sfbacnats.org/in_the_spotlight.htm http://www.sfbacnats.org/Jan%20Pedersen%20Schiff/Dr.%20Kenn%20Gartner%20Bio.htm
(CONDUCTING REVIEWS): http://www.jeansmagazines.org/ConductorTracks.htm
(ADDITIONAL PIANO REVIEW): http://www.jeansmagazines.org/SouthBaySpotlight.htm
(GENERAL): http://www.themagicflute.net/teacher.php?tpl=music_services_show&tID=85
(EXAMPLES OF MY WORK): http://www.hotchops.net
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