Catherine Bobbs
As a young pianist, I received major awards, performed with orchestras throughout California, and won a tour contract, performing throughout United States. I went on to get both my bachelors(BA 1980) and masters degrees(MFA 1983) in piano performance from UCLA under the tutelage of Aube Tzerko and Francois Regnat. However, as much as I enjoyed performing, I knew that my true gifts lie with teaching. I apply my performance experience, training and love for music in the capacity of a teacher. I had a highly successful private piano studio in Los Angeles for 34 years, then built a successful private piano studio in Cleveland along with my position at the Oberlin Conservatory as a teacher of pedagogy.
My private and conservatory students perform regularly in festivals, competitions, charity events, and private and public recitals. Many of my students have won major awards in festivals and concerto competitions as well as music scholarships. Many have gone on to pursue music as careers. However, I don’t teach for the glory of competition wins or even with the desire that all my students become professional musicians. I teach because music is an expression that every child should learn. I keep my instruction very positive, encouraging and insightful. Every student deserves full dedication from any teacher despite his/her natural ability or reputation, and my students get that from me.
As an educator, my passion is to engage and expand the students’ minds in their pursuit
of musical studies. Working with children’s existing talents and interests, I provide them with the technical tools and mental intelligence to become not only fine pianists, but well rounded musicians. I provide them with compelling ways to achieve their musical quests, connect themselves with what they are learning, and retain their information. My primary role is to show students the love of learning music of all periods, instill in them an organized and intelligent approach to learning, and guide them towards a reasonable comfort in performing. My hope is that the skills the students learn in their music lessons will be skills they can use in a variety of occupations and academic quests as well. I provide my students with many performing opportunities, not only insisting on their participation in studio recitals, but on their participation in other competitive and festival performing opportunities as well. Performance develops their confidence in themselves which, again, they may use in all sorts of life scenarios. I train my students not just to play piano well, but foster skills they may use throughout their lives in many capacities.
Organizations I have belonged to:
Music Teachers National Association
California Music Teachers Assn.
North East Ohio Music Teachers Assn
The Federation of Music Clubs
The Southwest Youth Music Festival
Texas Music Teachers Assn.
Pearland Music Teachers Assn.
