Name: Ary
Music Instrument(s) Taught: Banjo, Guitar, Piano, Voice
Location: NE Portland (15th and Prescott)

My teaching style is rooted in shared curiosity – I am most interested in what the student wants to be learning and how they like interacting with music. My goals as a teacher, facilitator, and songleader are to cultivate a space where the student can move at the right pace for them, feel safe and supported to explore and grow and build a meaningful relationship with music, and work from a shared understanding that we can learn together and from each other. I may have more classical training or ‘formal’ musical experience (or I may not), but the objective is to relate to and engage with music as authentically as we can, through a variety of means, not simply going through a checklist of skills and theory.

I have played piano since I was very young, which enabled me to build a strong foundation of music theory I was able to pull from in band, orchestra, and choir. I learned guitar in middle school, had more formal vocal training in high school, and picked up banjo in college. For many years I was a songleader at a Jewish summer camp, as well as the Music Teacher at various Hebrew schools throughout high school and college. Nowadays I spend a lot of my musical energy facilitating monthly song circles at my house and using song as a way to weave community.

Ary teaches piano, guitar, banjo, and voice lessons.