Private Instruction
It’s never too late to learn an instrument…
Research suggests that playing an instrument or singing in a choir can enhance emotional well-being, brain health, cognition, and hearing.
At CSMA, experienced music teachers and performers offer lessons for all skill levels. They teach with patience and encouragement and provide practice strategies letting you develop musical skills at your own pace.
We are offering both virtual and in-person private instruction with many of our talented music educators.
Lesson Rates
30 min. $35 | 45 min. $48 | 1 Hour $60
CSMA membership is required. Students may take up to four lessons on a trial basis before choosing to become a member.
-
Private Instruction – 30 Minute Lesson
$35.00 ($35.00 w/membership) Age: All Ages Instructor: Multiple Instructors -
Private Instruction – 45 Minute Lesson
$48.00 ($48.00 w/membership) Age: All Ages Instructor: Multiple Instructors -
Private Instruction – 60 Minute Lesson
$60.00 ($60.00 w/membership) Age: All Ages Instructor: Multiple Instructors -
Four Coupons for Private Instruction – 30 Minute Lesson
$140.00 ($140.00 w/membership) Age: All Ages Instructor: Multiple Instructors -
Four Coupons for Private Instruction – 45 Minute Lesson
$192.00 ($192.00 w/membership) Age: All Ages Instructor: Multiple Instructors -
Four Coupons for Private Instruction – 60 Minute Lesson
$240.00 ($240.00 w/membership) Age: All Ages Instructor: Multiple Instructors
Private Instruction Faculty
Gizelxanath Rodriguez
Gizelxanath Rodriguez is an internationally renowned vocalist, cellist, guitarist and educator. She is fluent in five languages (Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, and Italian). Her musical work spans a range of styles and cultures. Recently relocated to Ithaca...
Josh Oxford
Electronisist Josh Oxford, born in 1985, is a composer, arranger, and performer of myriad styles of music. He has performed throughout the world, especially in his native central New York, on piano, percussion, and synthesizer. After suffering a debilitating car crash...
Alexas Janae E. Ramírez
Alexas Janae E. Ramírez is an Indigenous Black composer who has drawn from her cultural lineage to inform her compositional voice. Holding a Bachelor of Composition in Music, with a Piano Emphasis from Ithaca College (2012), she studied with Dr. Dana Wilson, Jorge...
Marie Plouffe
Marie Plouffe (she/her) graduated from Ithaca College with a Bachelor's in Music Education in 2023. She has been playing trumpet for 13 years, ranging in styles from orchestral to musical theater. She completed her student teaching at Trumansburg Middle School and...
Ashley Ickes
Ashley (she/her) graduated with a BM in Music Performance, Jazz Studies from Western Michigan University in 2013. She has been performing professionally and teaching private and group lessons for well over twenty years. With experience in many styles including rock,...
Jennifer Lawrence Birnbaum
Jennifer Lawrence Birnbaum is a music teacher, choral director, performer and event coordinator with music education degrees from Ithaca College and Columbia University. In addition to serving on the faculty of the Community School of Music and Arts, she is the choir director at the First Unitarian Society of Ithaca and teaches at Namaste Montessori School.
Amy Opperman Cash
B.A. Piano, Ithaca College. Attended High School of Music and Art, NYC. Studied with Kendall Taylor in London, England. Over twenty years teaching experience.
Ed Cohn
Ed began his musical journey early, starting on clarinet at age 9. He soon moved on to saxophone, guitar, and piano and gained experience on trombone, French horn, and flute before falling in love with singing and opera.
Hayden Frank
Hayden Frank was born and raised in Ithaca, where he became active in music and theater at a young age. Drawn to the deep grooves of ‘60s and ‘70s R&B/Soul music, he picked up the bass as a teenager and studied under local legend Doug Robinson, until departing for...
William Hurley
William Hurley is an Ithaca-based violinist/violist, teacher, and luthier. Violin – M.M., Violin Performance, Ithaca College. B.A. in Violin Performance, University of South Carolina.
Jaime Kibelsbeck
Violist Jaime Kibelsbeck has been an instructor and freelance performer for over fifteen years. She has performed in the Binghamton Philharmonic, the Tri-Cities Opera, and the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes. An early music enthusiast, she has also performed as a member of Cornell University’s early music ensemble Le Petit Violons as a baroque violis
Nolan Miller
Pianist Nolan Miller grew up in Ithaca, and is active in the area as a teacher and performer. He holds a BM in piano performance from Houghton College; an MM from Syracuse University; and a DM from Florida State University, where his major professor was Read...
Christopher Morgan Loy
Composer-pianist Christopher Morgan Loy has a catalog of compositions which includes works for piano, voice, chamber ensembles, chamber orchestra, full orchestra, and chorus. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in composition from Cornell University where he studied composition with Pulitzer Prize-winning composers, Karel Husa (1969) and Steven Stucky (2005).
Zaun Marshburn
Zaun Marshburn has been a professional drummer and percussionist since 1993. He has traveled throughout the U.S. and abroad playing in venues large and small such as The Bowery Ballroom in NYC opening for Julianna Hetfield, and The Haunt in Ithaca, as well as in many area schools. He can be heard playing with several groups including Wingnut, Black is Green, and MSZM.
Karen Melamed Smith
Karen Melamed Smith studied piano and composition at the Music Institute of Chicago while growing up and has taught piano and various music and movement classes in similar community schools in NYC and at CSMA for many years.
Emmett Scott
Proficient in classical, jazz, folk/rock, and hip hop Emmett splits his time teaching private lessons and accompanying vocalists and instrumentalists at Ithaca College. Emmett is passionate about fostering a love of music in both beginners and experienced players, and teaching with aspects of theory, aural training and sight reading for a well rounded musical education.
Gerald Slevin
Specializing in teaching students how to play and sing simultaneously and employing an easy-going, creative, song-oriented pop/rock approach, Gerald has taught for over 12 years both one-on-one and in groups with students of all ages. To help each student uncover...
Private Instruction by Instrument
Bass Guitar
Cello
Composition
Trumpet
Percussion
Private Instruction Inquiry Form
Please complete this form so we may refer you to an instructor who best matches your interests and availability. Due to current demand, many of our instructors’ schedules are full. If you don’t see your instrument listed in the drop-down menu below (Instrument Requested), there is no availability at this time — please check back soon for additional openings!
Please see our policies page for more about private instruction.