My experience in the teaching field is largely from on-the-job training. I began by subbing for my father at City Music School in Manhattan when I was 18 years old. I quickly grew to love teaching and after college immediately created business cards and handed them out to anyone who would accept them. On the card was my phone number and rates for teaching for 30-minutes and 1-hour along with instruments I knew I could teach comfortably. This grew into my business that I called Staten Island Music Lessons.
I taught at Rustic Music II (2013 – 2017) and The Staten Island Conservatory (2014 – 2024) where I taught multiple instruments that included: Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, Guitar and Vocals.
During this time, I worked with many students with disabilities. My youngest disabled student was a non-verbal 5-year-old and my oldest disabled student was 27. I’ve worked with students who were non-verbal, had tremors, Autism, ADHD and other disabilities.
I entered the classroom as a fulltime Music teacher at Manhattan Charter School (MCS) and Manhattan Charter School 2 (MCS2) in October 2024. My days were split with teaching three periods of a percussion ensemble at MCS2 in the morning and then three periods at MCS in the afternoons. I started with minimal resources, so I improvised and taught a mixture of music theory and history at MCS where I was a push-in teacher. From October – December 2024. In mid-November, I created a choir that rehearsed and sang holiday favorites leading up to a winter concert. These students performed holiday classics like Frosty The Snowman, It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year & Jingle Bell Rock. At MCS 2 where I had my own room, we worked up repertoire on hand drums and various pitched percussion. Songs like Deck The Halls, Ode To Joy & Twinkle Twinkle Little Star were performed among others at their Holiday Spectacular. For both shows, I personally paid for the sax player of Not From Concentrate, Yuki Koike, to perform with the children. Kind of like an offshoot of the Side-By-Side program I cultivated for over a decade.
In February 2025 both schools received violins for all the students so there was a strings program. I instructed students through beginning repertoire using my own curriculum that I’d developed over 15 years of one-on-one education. These daily ensemble rehearsals lead up towards the schools’ spring concerts. All students were able to perform with bows from the first lesson (part of my personal pedagogy) and played pieces in both 4/4 time and ¾ time by the end of the school year. Songs like Ode To Joy, Frere Jacques (performed as a round) & French Folk Song (from Essential Elements Method Series) were performed at both schools’ spring concerts. I taught 2nd-6th at MCS2 & 3rd-5that MCS.
I worked with many students who had IEPs, Paraprofessionals, and special needs at MCS and MCS2. They were part of the general population, and all my students learned how to play with the bow and perform at least one song and at least half of a major scale. I would also like to note that I was also department head for music and had three subordinates that I mentored and worked closely with to ensure a successful music program. Weekly meetings were held and I was in charge of agendas, ensuring they all made deadlines for lesson plans and data trackers for enrichment classes. I also personally headed the winter and spring concert. Wearing my Artistic Director hat, I figured out the program and its order for another staff member to design the program.
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