Music Lessons

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Background

Joe Molinaro is a conservatory trained professional violinist/ multi-instrumentalist with daily openings in his schedule at his Swissvale teaching studio and West View home. He is a certified music educator with over 15 years of experience teaching full-time classroom music, directing public school orchestras and conducting private lessons for beginners through college prep.

His Bachelors in Music Education was awarded by the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, IN.

Rates

Lessons are $40 per half hour. In-home lessons, virtual lessons, or multi-child discounts are available.

Philosophy

All students are given opportunities to excel as classical musicians but students’ unique passions and talents for jazz, rock, and creative musicianship are nurtured to ensure a lifetime of music-making.

Assessment

Recitals, contests, collaborations, and special events are regularly scheduled.

Instruments

Joe is a proficient performer on many instruments and currently teaches 7 violinists, 6 pianists, 2 drum set players, 3 trumpeters, 2 guitarists, and 1 clarinetists.

Joe started his lessons with Carrie Carlson, an IU alum and orchestra teacher in Indiana. He was the very first student of PYCO director Pablo Ardiles, and studied with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra violinists

For two years, Joe studied music education in Pittsburgh at Duquense University, and studied violin with Hong-Guang Jia. He auditioned and was accepted at the IU Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, IN where he studied with Josef Gingold’s violin teaching assistant Henryk Kowalski, played in the top Philharmonic Orchestra, and earned high marks from virtuoso cellist and teacher Janos Starker.

He went on to teach classroom orchestra in public schools for years, directed a violin and fiddle academy in rural Indiana, and made creative music in the legendary scene of Bloomington in the 2000s. Joe went on to direct orchestras in public schools of suburban Indianapolis for three years, then moved to New York City to study composition and launch a career as a creative musician.

Joe’s creative career took him around the world, before landing back in Pittsburgh where he taught classroom and multi-instrumental music in private schools for eight years. Now, his own private music lesson studio is blossoming into a multi-instrumental academy that offers both a pathway to excellence and the tools to make music for a lifetime. Through this process, the child develops a joy for music making.

The String Academy directed by Mimi Zweig served as the foundation for Joe’s violin teaching technique. This method is a variation of the Suzuki technique, established by Paul Roland and further adapted by Joe through his experience. He takes beginning students as young as three years old and as old as eleven. Students progress rapidly using both rote learning and notation, with constant focus on the creation of a big, beautiful sound in violin lessons, in practice, and beyond.

His students regularly perform solo, with accompaniment, and in ensembles around Pittsburgh. His violin students also use improvisation and play in various styles.

Lessons are available in Pittsburgh in the Regent Square area of Swissvale, specifically near the Swisshelm Park neighborhood. In addition to his Regent Square studio, he teaches in the North Hills of Pittsburgh, where he lives in West View with his fiancee and their kids.