School of music offers piano prep program

<p>The ASU Piano Preparatory/Conservatory Program at the Herberger College School of Music is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and officials with the program are inviting new students to enroll.</p><separator></separator><p>Interviews are being held for beginners with no previous piano instruction who will reach age 7 by Sept. 1, and for students with prior piano study aged 7-17.</p><separator></separator><p>The interviews will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., April 12 and April 26, in room W255 of the Herberger College School of Music on ASU’s Tempe campus.</p><separator></separator><p>The cost of the piano preparatory program is $1,304 per academic year. The cost of the piano conservatory program is $1,655 per academic year.</p><separator></separator><p>The ASU Piano Prep/Conservatory Program is known throughout the Valley for its innovative approach to piano study. It offers quality music instruction to elementary through high school children in a creative and motivating learning environment.</p><separator></separator><p>Since its inception in 1988, the program has provided students with opportunities for excellent music instruction from experienced model teachers and ASU performance-pedagogy graduate students.</p><separator></separator><p>Piano prep students enjoy a well-planned and varied curriculum emphasizing the development of musicianship skills through piano study, performance and participation in the successful National Music Certificate Program, a division of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.</p><separator></separator><p>Janice Meyer Thompson, the program’s founding director and a professor of music at ASU, cites the combination of group and individual lessons as one of the keys to the program’s success. Thompson coordinates the program, linking teachers and preparatory students with university piano pedagogy courses and observers in a laboratory-school setting.</p><separator></separator><p>Advance appointments are requested for the program. For more information, call the Piano Prep Office at (480) 965-1702 or Janice Meyer Thompson at (480) 965-3823, or visit the Piano Prep Web site: <a href="http://music.asu.edu/community/piano.php">http://music.asu.edu/communit…;