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For the past year, Pierre André has been spending three hours a week teaching Piano and French language to my Children. Under his helm, they quickly achieved a terrific level on the instrument as well as being able to engage in French conversations.
Such a high dosage of private education (two hours of Piano, one hour of French) may sound like a lot but Pierre invested all of his energy and imagination into constantly finding new ways to keep my children interested; not a small feat considering you're dealing with two Magnet Elementary School participants.
While my children had to work hard, they succeeded on multiple levels.
By being exposed to the French language in an audio-visual manner via the use of method books and CDs imported from Paris, they accomplished two years in one and are now attending the LILA (Lycée International de Los Angeles). As a reminder, they didn't speak a word of French a year ago !
On a musical level, they developed a technical and lyrical expertise which allowed them to immediately express their musical side while having fun at the same time.
The true test came under the shape of two separate concerts: a Christmas recital devoted to Religious and Disney music as well as a Film Music concert which took place last May at The Jazz Bakery in Culver City.
It's during this second concert that my son, Kieran, interpreted a free flowing, almost elegiac, rendition of John Ottman's score for Superman Returns which had the audience shivering. My daughter, Anneka, pushed even more the boundaries of her piano skills by performing several pieces from The Incredibles by Michael Giacchino.
Not only was she facing a Jazz idiom (The Incredibles is heavily Jazz influenced and requires swing; something that takes years to nurture) but she was able to play as part of a Jazz trio with two professional Berklee College of Music Graduate musicians (double bass and drums) for a total of three pieces.
I still remember how Pierre, for the final piece of the concert, called her back to the stage for what was to be her first Jazz solo !
With only a few indications from her teacher, she delivered the goods by stating some very strong counter melodies and brought a great closure to the show (her dad's a musician too but I guess you've figured this by now if you're still reading !).
So as you can imagine, I truly recommend Pierre as a French and Piano teacher. He's able to get the best of my Children and will definitely get the best of yours too !
Lance & Angela, Father & Mother of Anneka and Kieran.(Customers since September 2006)
Originally Added: 10/10/07
Version Française
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