Piano and keyboard lessons are some of the most popular lessons offered by Buchanan Music. As such, we have instructors who specialize in many styles and techniques to meet the needs of our students. If you or someone you know is interested in piano, keyboard, synthesizer, or organ lessons, call us at 480-461-9161 or send us an email for availability and pricing.
One of the most popular instruments to learn in the World, the piano is one of the most recognizable instruments in history. Some of the World's greatest masterpieces in music were written on the piano or an earlier incarnation like a harpsichord. The piano is unique in the realm of musical instruments because you can see music theory at work by the chords and keys played. As such, Music Educators use the piano as their means of conveying their instruction to their students.
Jennifer has been playing flute for 30 years. She received her Bachelor of Music in Performance from North Carolina School of Arts in 1991 and her Master of Music from Arizona State University in 1993. She is a member of the Arizona Flute Society and the National Flute Association. Jennifer performed several solo recitals in the Mid-Atlantic region in the early 90's. She has worked as a freelance performer in North Carolina, which included playing with the Winston Salem Symphony.
Jennifer has played with the Mesa Symphony and is co-principal flute with the Tempe Symphonic Wind Ensemble, a position she has held for 14 years. Jennifer has been teaching flute since 1989, including 15 years at Milano's in downtown Mesa, 7 years at East Valley Music Instruction (closed), and 5 years at Brindleys' Mesa Music location (closed).
Jennifer has been an adjudicator for All-State and Regional festivals as well as for the Arizona Flute Society Young Artist Competition. Some honors that Jennifer's students have received are: Arizona Flute Society Competition division winners, Superior with distinction at solo and ensemble festivals, and college scholarships. Her students have also earned spots in the Metropolitan Youth Symphony and routinely make their regional and honor bands.
Jennifer's teaching purpose is to help students reach their highest potential in an environment of patience and respect.
I am a contemporary classical composer and interpreter of music. I channel my mind and heart to full capacity to create new music; as “interpreter” I discuss meaning in music to enhance aesthetic experience and contribute to the discipline of music theory. As a dedicated lover of truth in all its variety, I write about other topics including philosophy and leadership. I love Palestrina, Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky and Lutoslawski, and I embrace Keats’ maxim that “Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.”
I have a doctorate in music from the University of Northern Colorado, where I studied composition with Robert Ehle and Evan Copley, and piano with Vergie Amendola and Lei Weng. At Long Island University, I earned a bachelor’s in business, and studied composition with Daniel Koontz.
My solo piano album “Diapason” released in December, 2013 through a successful Kickstarter. The recording has been broadcast on radio stations in the States and around the world, and is available on all the major internet distribution channels (CD Baby, Amazon and iTunes, etc). In my doctoral dissertation (2012) I analyze two biblical choral symphonies in the context of presenting my own Symphony of Creation for chorus and orchestra. My paper “Pain and Pleasure in Liszt’s Dante Symphony” has been published in the 2014 issue of the Journal of the American Liszt Society.
I embrace various styles of music including popular and ethnic as well as classical and concert–e.g. I arranged African, Chinese, and Arabic folk music for marching-band for UNC’s Indigenous Music Project in 2007; I have prepared business analyses for entrepreneurs in Long Island and Phoenix; in 2004, I attended the Southampton College Writer’s Conference where I learned craft from Bharati Mukherjee and audited lectures by Tom Wolfe, Bruce Jay Friedman, and other internationally recognized writers; I remain a student and lover of graphic art, which I studied with Pam Capozzola in Westhampton Beach, NY.
I explore music’s potential to function as a potent medium of aesthetic expression and even philosophical discourse, not to mention entertainment. I believe that music has meaning even apart from vocals or text; my job as an interpreter is to communicate what that meaning is.
A native New Yorker, I am currently based in Phoenix, where I work as an independent composer-pianist and enjoy life as a husband and father of three.
