Experienced students and beginners alike will benefit from the carefully designed piano lessons at the studio.  Students will develop their playing skills through thoughtfully chosen repertoire and technical exercises.  Weekly lessons include ear training, sight-reading, musical notation and theory.  Students will also deepen their musical understanding in creative ways including: rhythmic and melodic activities, movement experiences, composition, musical games and instrumentation.  Our goal is to give our students a meaningful musical education that develops both their musicianship and their unique musical voice.

About the Instructors - Maryke Sluis (see About Us for bio) and Emily Hashmani, BMT, MTA

Emily has been playing the piano since age 7 and has been teaching piano to students of all ages for over five years. She graduated from the Music Therapy program at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2005 and became a Music Therapist Accredited in 2007. She has worked with a variety of populations, including children with special needs, autism spectrum disorders, Down’s Syndrome, and in acute general medicine and long-term care settings. She completed the highly enjoyable Royal Conservatory of Music course “Music in Early Childhood” in July 2010.

Emily has a true passion for teaching music. She loves to build unique teacher-student relationships that are based on encouragement, fun, and mutual respect, all of which allow for plenty of creative self-expression. Her background in music therapy lends well to teaching: she is sensitive to her students’ strengths and needs, maintains great musicality, and has endless patience. With students of every age and ability, she believes in providing opportunities for successful experiences in order to foster self-confidence and creativity at the piano.