1st lesson free
Nicole
- Rate Rs 2,369
- Response 1h
Rs 2,369/h
Contact
1st lesson free
- Piano
Experienced tutor in Piano in Cleveland, Nicole offers private lessons tailored to your needs.
- Piano
Lesson location
About Nicole
(***TEXT REQUESTS WELCOME***)
Nicole Elyse DiPaolo is a versatile pianist, composer, and teacher who has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Ambassador Chamber Players and as a recitalist, collaborator, and presenter worldwide. She holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, where she studied piano with Louis Nagel and composition with Bright Sheng, and a Master of Music from the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University-Bloomington, where she achieved PhD candidacy in music theory and was active as a collaborative pianist for the voice department before relocating to Cleveland. She has also had the pleasure of undertaking additional coaching with famed piano pedagogues Menahem Pressler, Waleed Howrani, Christopher Harding, Donald Morelock, John Ellis, and the late Eugene Bossart.
Nicole continues to compose and arrange music, and she earned a doctoral minor in composition from IU. Nicole's music has been heard across the world, including her commissioned song settings of Muscogee poet laureate Alexander Posey's texts and her Divertimento written for the International String Quartet of Yucatán, which received its Mexican premiere in 2013. In 2014 Nicole published a set of twenty short pedagogical pieces in uncommon keys, Venturing Beyond, for early-intermediate pianists of all ages, and she is currently working on a new set of pieces in the Impressionist language for intermediate pianists.
Currently, Nicole is an online Adjunct Lecturer in Music General Studies and Music Theory for Indiana University and a sought-after private instructor of piano, music theory, and composition. Nicole also frequently judges state, regional, and divisional MTNA composition competitions at all levels. She was on the composition and collaborative piano faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in 2014 and 2015. Nicole continues a pedagogical lineage that can be traced through Béla Bartók (a great-grand-instructor) to Franz Liszt and Beethoven, and while living in Indiana, she maintained a thriving studio of teens and adults. Most recently, she completed the two-level Tales of a Musical Journey certification course, which prepares piano teachers to instruct beginners in the Russian tradition.
Her favorite recent performing engagements include numerous competitions and degree recitals in Indiana and two long-term, international cruise ship performing contracts with violinist Amy Lee as the Duo del Mare. Additionally, she recently finished recording an album of unique folksong settings with bass-baritone and IU Kelley School of Business professor Timothy Fort, to be included in the business ethics text, Vision of the Firm. In June 2018, Nicole was a Collaborative Piano Fellow at the Bay View Music Festival in Petoskey, Michigan, which also won her two appearances in the Bay View Young Artist Series.
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I am currently accepting inquiries for piano, composition, and music theory lessons in your home within Shaker Heights and (on a limited basis) Beachwood. Please inquire for current rates, policies, and availability. Students must be old enough to read text comfortably and stay on task through a typical lesson period of 20-30 minutes (generally ages 7+, though my specialty is in teaching teens and adults of all levels). Parents of elementary and preteen students must also agree to support their child(ren) through daily practice and reinforcement activities. Term-based, monthly, and (higher) a la carte tuition plans are available.
In addition to teaching, I'm also happy to partner with you or your child when you need a collaborative pianist for recitals, recordings, competitions, and coachings. I am a staff accompanist at the Celebrity School of Music and Case Western Reserve University and was highly sought after in this capacity at Indiana University.
Please note that I cannot privately teach any students/families currently or recently affiliated with the Celebrity School of Music or Westlake Music Academy (where I am on faculty), though you are encouraged to join my roster through those respective schools. Families in/near Westlake must join Westlake Music Academy to work with me.
Opening students' ears, eyes, hearts, and minds to the world of music making is a great privilege and one I hope to continue to take on for the rest of my life. Music is a pastime that students and former students can continue to enjoy throughout their lives--even when they can no longer play sports or engage in other hobbies that depend on being in top physical condition. Music can also provide a valuable challenge for academically gifted children who aren't finding challenges in their schoolwork, so music studies can teach them how to focus, set goals, deal with obstacles, and communicate more effectively than a typical education ever could.
As a high school student, I was known for my achievements as a pianist and composer, which led my neighbors to approach me about teaching piano to their children. While going off to college kept me from establishing a long-term studio relationship at that time, I couldn't stay away from teaching, and in 2005, as a sophomore at Michigan, I established a thriving music theory studio that welcomed struggling students of all levels (undergraduate through doctoral) and that professors routinely recommended to their students who needed extra help. When I entered doctoral coursework at Indiana, I reestablished myself as a piano, music theory, and composition instructor, and as they say...the rest is history!
BMus - University of Michigan
MMus - Indiana University Bloomington
PhD candidacy (music theory) and completed doctoral minor in music composition - Indiana University Bloomington
Collaborative Piano Fellow (full scholarship) - Bay View Music Festival
Private teaching experience dating back to 2001, with consistent studio enrollment since 2011 and a specialty in working with teens/adults of all levels
Principal piano studies with Michele Cooker and Dr. Louis Nagel
"Tales of a Musical Journey" Level 1 and 2 piano pedagogy certification (2019)
Frequent adjudicator of MTNA composition competitions and former faculty member in collaborative piano and composition at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp
Cleared background checks prior to current multi-teacher studio employment
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About the lesson
- All levels
- English
All languages in which the lesson is available :
English
When a new student comes for their first lesson, we'll kick things off with a "meet and greet" as well as a fun, informal assessment of any previous musical experience, aural skills, ability to follow directions, interest, etc. We'll also use that time to go over scheduling and studio policies so we can finalize if Studio DiPaolo and your family will be a good match. From there, I customize the curriculum to fit the student's needs.
The majority of my students have been teens and adults, since I've cultivated a specialty in working with these age groups (as an Associate Instructor for six years at Indiana University). However, I'm also happy to work with motivated younger students with involved families (when the potential students are under age 10, I will give priority to younger students who already have late intermediate proficiency at the piano).
I also have experience in working with students (particularly teens/adults in music theory) who have dyslexia, dyscalculia, Noonan Syndrome, ADHD, autism, and other learning differences. If you have or your child has a learning difference of some kind, I'd be happy to explore whether we'd be a good fit, though I do not claim to be a music therapist and may refer certain students to board-certified music therapists rather than traditional lessons.
My first piece of advice would be to make sure the teacher can practice at a high level in the area he/she teaches. (I encourage all interested students to stop by my YouTube channel for a repository of recent performances and compositions!) Certainly some excellent teachers may no longer be performing (due to injury, a degenerative condition or, in singers' cases especially, simply aging out of the operatic roles they were best suited for singing), but all should be able to offer evidence of the performing levels they have achieved. Additionally, the teacher needs to have excellent communication skills and the ability to relate to students who are not at the teacher's achievement level.
In March 2019, on only four days' notice, I was asked to be the piano accompanist for a young mezzo-soprano (opera singer who sounds best in her middle range) putting on her junior voice recital at IU's Jacobs School of Music. Her regular pianist had been hospitalized and was unlikely to be cleared for release before the recital date. I stepped in and we made the recital a great success, even with the harrowing circumstances that led up to it. The regular pianist was then given time to recover and the mezzo-soprano was not forced to cancel or reschedule her recital (and as a bonus, I gained a new friend through the experience!)
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Rates
Rate
- Rs 2,369
Pack prices
- 5h: Rs 10
- 10h: Rs 20
free lessons
The first free lesson with Nicole will allow you to get to know each other and clearly specify your needs for your next lessons.
- 1h
online
- Rs 2,369/h
Details
If you'd like to join my studios at Westlake Music Academy or Celebrity School of Music, please visit their respective websites for up-to-date tuition info (thewestlakemusicacademy.com and celebrityschoolofmusic.com)
I have multiple tuition packages available depending on your needs and whether or not our plan includes travel lessons within Shaker Heights and Beachwood, monthly tuition or a la carte per-lesson rates, and multi-discipline lesson bundles (for example, piano+composition or piano+theory). Please note I cannot travel outside of these locales due to a non-compete clause with my studios.
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