I am known to my students as Teacher Amy, I have taught private lessons for over 25 yrs in Davis County, Utah. I studied with many wonderful teachers and at the University of Utah conservatory in my teenage years and loved accompanying church and school choirs. I studied Music Therapy at Utah state and fell in love with early childhood music education. I finished my degree at the UofU in developmental psych and spent several years as a play therapist at The Children’s center in SLC using my music therapist skill set. I eventually discovered the beautiful Musikgarten curriculum and began teaching both group classes and lessons and have been doing so for the past 25 years.
My family heritage piano has a rich history of sacrifice, dedication and commitment. Our family piano originated from my maternal great grandmother from a farmstead in Declo, Idaho. She and my grandmother raised and sold turkeys to save money for a family piano. One day unbeknownst to the children a piano arrived at the farm. Their mother had been secretly saving the money to purchase the piano and it was truly a family treasure back in 1919 to have a piano. My grandmother was the dedicated player of the family and the piano eventually came to her home in sugarhouse area of Salt Lake City. My grandmother was extremely dedicated to her children's music education and in order to pay for lessons she would knit sweaters for the teacher’s children to pay for lessons. My mother was my first teacher but I would often spend the night at my grandmother’s home and she would always have me bring my piano books and she would help me refine my pieces. I treasure the time she spent with me at the piano. My grandparents eventually funded my piano lessons at the University conservatory where was I was able to take lessons from incredible teachers. When I began teaching private lessons i had been using a borrowed piano that was temporarily loaned to us, but the owners needed it returned and i would be left without a piano. I had decided i was going to need to finance a piano in order to continue teaching. It was a stressful but necessary decision. The night before i needed to make the decision my grandpa called to let me know that he had discussed with the family his desire to see me have my grandmother’s piano and that the family had all agreed that I should be the one to have “Howard”. I was relieved and overjoyed and overcome with gratitude to have the family piano that had already had so much love and devotion poured into it. Eventually i started my own private early childhood music studio with a full range of classes and private lessons. The piano is lovingly referred to as the Turkey Piano and hundreds of children have learned how to play on Howard, the Turkey Piano. I have a deep commitment to teaching all children to love and appreciate music and have dedicated my studio to being a place for children of all levels of ability and aptitude the opportunity to have music in their lives. I would love to have Howard lovingly restored by the incredible artisans and technicians at Brigham Larsen pianos. I believe so deeply in the work you are doing and so grateful that you provide this opportunity of preservation. My little musicians would deeply appreciate Howard getting a restoration so i can continue to provide music education to more developing little musicians. Thank you, Brigham Larson Pianos!
