From ages six through high school, we offer weekly one-on-one private lessons in piano, violin, viola, and cello to pre-college students.
We employ both local professionals with proven teaching credentials as well as supervised Shepherd School of Music graduate students as instructors. Please see our preparatory faculty list for a complete list of Preparatory Program teachers.
The private lesson teachers handle their own scheduling, which offer a variety of lesson options between after-school hours, weeknights, and weekends depending on the teacher. All lessons meet on a weekly basis for a minimum of thirteen weeks per semester during fall and spring semesters. Lessons may last from 30 minutes to 90 minutes depending upon the needs of the student and the recommendation of the instructor. All lessons take place in Alice Pratt Brown Hall, the Shepherd School of Music on the Rice University campus.
While few of the Preparatory Program instructors share teaching studios on campus with others, most of our instructors use Shepherd School of Music practice rooms for private lesson teaching. Due to space constraints on campus, The Shepherd School of Music practice rooms are not open to public and can only be used to teach registered Preparatory Program students by Preparatory Program appointed teachers. Due to the same space issue, the Preparatory Program is limited in size, and therefore instruction of all instruments is often not possible.
The summer term is only available to continuing students whose teachers will be available during the summer months. For some of the studios, summer lesson registration is required in order to remain in the studiio. These studios are advised of this enrollment policy in the beginning of each semester registration. For students whose summer registration is not required, the summer term consists of a flexible number of lessons in order to accommodate vacations. Students signing up for summer lessons should first speak with their teacher and decide with the teacher the number of lessons that can be scheduled. Summer lessons may begin as soon as the spring lessons have been completed, and should be concluded no later than the end of August when fall lessons may begin.