ABOUT CYNTHIA

Cynthia Crotty offers private instruction in her studio, Piano by the Falls, in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

Cynthia graduated with honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music (B.M., M.A.), where she studied under Jack Radunksy. She also studied under international pianist Ozan Marsh at the University of Arizona and Chautauqua Institution and with the world-famous Russian piano team Vronsky and Babin. She pursued post-graduate studies in piano performance at Cleveland State University under the Lithuanian pianist Andrius Kuprevicius. Cynthia has performed in numerous solo and duo piano recitals in Ohio, Arizona, New York and Pennsylvania including duo piano with Cleveland’s Suburban Symphony Orchestra.

Her love of music and children inspired her to train under Haruko Kataoka, founder of the Suzuki Piano Method, and earn her Suzuki Piano Pedagogy Degree. Cynthia is an active Suzuki Piano Instructor, certified in Levels 1-8. She is also MTNA Nationally Certified and an active member of the Suzuki Association of America, Ohio Music Teachers Association, Senior Fortnightly Musical Club of Cleveland, National Federation of Music Clubs, Western Reserve Teachers Association, and International Piano Guild.

Cynthia’s students have performed at Carnegie Hall in New York as young as age 5, and in Winners Recitals at the United Nations, the Mozarteum Hall in Salzburg, Austria, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and at the Russian Crown Piano Competition in Sochi Adler, Russia, by invitation-only. Students have competed in the American Protégé Competition, Buckeye Piano Competition, Baldwin Piano Competition, World Piano Competition, Golden Classical Music Awards, International Chinese Piano Competition in Washington D.C., and have performed with the Chagrin Light Orchestra as young as age 8, with many students earning top honors and gold medals. A number of her students have received the Presidential Cup at the National Federation of Music Clubs Festival, in recognition of 10 years of accomplishment.

In addition, Cynthia’s students have performed at Music Institutes and in Master Classes under world-renowned artists including Claude Franck, Seizo Azuma, Marvin Blickenstaff, Susan Starr, and Robert Mayerovitch. They have had the privilege of performing in Master Classes featuring contemporary composers such as Dennis Alexander, Robert Vandall, Catherine Rollin, Eugénie Rocherolle, and Jeanine Yaeger. By audition her students were selected to perform at the National Suzuki Convention in Chicago in Master Classes under the direction of Haruko Kataoka.

Locally, students have performed in recitals at Kulas Recital Hall and Mixon Hall at CIM, as well as Steinway Hall and Stan Hewyt Hall in Akron, Waetjen Hall and Drinko Hall at Cleveland State, and at the Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory. They have also performed in Chamber Music recitals accompanied by members of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Her students have been featured on “Ramona’s Kids” on Channel 19 in Cleveland and have performed on WKYC-TV Channel 3 and WJW-TV Channel 8.

VISION AND METHOD

My philosophy of music is a system of basic beliefs which underlie and provide a basis for my method of teaching. The method by which children learn to speak their native language is the most effective. It is the constant experience of sound that provides the stimulus for the development of an outstanding musician. We must continue the process of repetition and stimulation of beautiful music on a daily basis. One must nurture the environment of the child and in turn the child will be nurtured. The Suzuki Method leads the child by repeated stimulation of sound to develop an ability and make it his own.

Children learn 80% thru their senses (the affective domain ) and 20% through the (cognitive domain) knowledge. They need to develop an ability thru their senses at the initial stages without thinking. To have an ear and feeling for the music is what should come first. I believe that to teach the symbol without first introducing the experience of sound is backwards. Always start with the experience, it is the source of all learning!

Providing a musical education for your child enables them to develop life-long learning skills. Concentration, discipline, patience, confidence thru performance, and developing a critical ear. These are all skills we need in life. If you have a broader vision beyond music education and realize the impact it will make on your child in his daily life you will be able to see and experience its ultimate reward.

Music gives youth an opportunity to explore the relationships between self-discipline and a quest for the creative. It opens the window to experience prosperous enlightenment thru the beats of each measure, and the thrill of being able to bring to life a musical line. It provides an elixir of intellectual enjoyment as the final outcome and reward.