MUSIC MATTERS

Going Far Beyond Piano Lessons

BY AMANDA PETERSON | SKYLOFT PHOTOGRAPHY

When Erik and Stacey Lucht of Fargo began searching for a piano teacher for their oldest daughter, they were happy to find Paige Keiser-Rezac, 44, owner of Shine Music in Fargo.

Yet even then, they couldn’t foresee what Shine Music would do for their family.

Five years later, two of the Lucht’s children (Sophia, 10, and Bennet, 8) are immersed in Keiser-Rezac’s music program, with their youngest daughter, Priscilla, 3, begging for her lessons to start. They each take a weekly private one-hour piano lesson, but their education goes far beyond sheet music. During their lessons, Sophia and Bennet discuss classical technique, emotion and music form. They use the computer lab to explore music theory and history.

Then, once a month they get together with other Shine Music students for a Musicianship Class where they explore a yearly theme, like this year’s folk music study through “There’s No Place Like Home: The Rise of American Music.” They do everything from making their own instruments to writing their own music. End of year recitals are more like an original musical than a piano concert.

“Our kids learn piano from a standard set of piano books that are sold at the local music stores, but that’s just where the program begins,” Erik says. “Paige writes an expanded curriculum that encompasses the whole age range of piano students and focuses on a wide variety of fine arts and music topics.”

Thanks to Shine Music, there are no arguments in the Lucht household about piano practice.

“The children love to tinker and play on the piano above and beyond the required practicing,” Stacey says. “When they go back to lessons, they are excited to play for her some of the things they were learning on their own. We believe this is all because Paige has inspired in the children a love of learning music and a feeling of confidence in what they can achieve and do.”

Creating Shine Music

After 10 years in the graphic design business, Keiser-Rezac says she was ready for a career change and turned to her first love, music. With the encouragement of her husband, Steve, and daughter Alexandra, now 13, she began writing and designing her own music conservatory inspired curriculum. She opened Shine Music out of her home in 2005.

“I knew from the start that I wanted Shine Music to be a place for students to discover themselves as individuals and to find the great feeling that music-making gives you that nothing else can interfere with or taint,” Keiser-Rezac says.

She created a three-part program: Piano Study, Voice Study and a Music Appreciation Series. The 60-minute piano lessons and

30-minute voice lessons are offered year-round and include the Musicianship Classes. There is a strong emphasis on classical training at Shine Music with the study of three technical focus areas each year, including ear training, touch and improvisation.

The monthly three-hour Music Appreciation Series classes are open to anyone (no lessons or experience required) and take students even deeper into music through the study of particular compositions. For example, October’s Spooky Music class will combine Hector Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” with William Shakespeare’s “MacBeth.” Past classes included Earthquake Symphonies, Art and Music Collide and Jungle Drums.

Paul Pappas, a professional headline pianist on cruises, has known Keiser-Rezac for years and followed her career with Shine Music. He’s especially amazed by her Music Appreciation Series.

“When I read the class descriptions I want to take the classes myself,” says the West Palm Beach, Fla., resident. “Paige believes the kids are capable of so much more than others might believe,” he says. “Her lessons, classes, materials, individual instruction and end-ofyear recitals all reflect that.”

For example, one year her students studied the composer Igor Stravinsky and his 12tone technique for composition. The students created their own tone rows and explored the resulting atonal or “keyless” music.

“Some would ask why I teach them a complex concept that would normally be taught in a college music class,” Keiser-Rezac says. “Even if they aren’t going to be able to take the concept and apply it, they recognize pieces of it in music and it broadens their knowledge of music. These students are definitely being creative, learning to analyze and being challenged to think outside the box.”

It’s one of the reasons parents and children love Shine Music so much.

“It’s a whole music experience for the students,” says Amanda Bunkowski of Moorhead, whose daughter, Hailey, 12, has studied piano with Keiser-Rezac for four years. “It builds a deeper understanding of music and I think that’s why students enjoy it more.”

It’s also about growing a life-long appreciation of music. Nancy Jordheim, retired Fargo Public Schools assistant superintendent and liaison to the Trollwood Performing Arts School, admires Keiser-Rezac’s ability to give this gift to children.

“She has thoughtfully considered how kids learn and how they interact with their environment, in this case a piano,” she says. “She’s showing them the personal joy that music can give them. From an educational point of view, that’s such a wonderful connection.”

Growing the Program

Today, Keiser-Rezac teaches about 20 piano students and three voice students out of a studio at Oak Grove Lutheran School in North Fargo. She keeps the numbers small intentionally – valuing the one-on-one lessons with each of her students.

Shine Music grows in deeper ways. In the fall of 2011, KeiserRezac became the founding teacher for North Dakota with the Royal Conservatory’s Music Development Program, during its first year in the United States. (Since then, three other Fargo music teachers have become involved.) The conservatory in Toronto, Ontario, is one of the largest and most highly respected music schools in the world. Its Music Development Program provides a teaching and testing standard for students of all levels. By meeting these criteria, now Keiser-Rezac’s students can be evaluated each year to track their own progress and see how they are doing compared to other students across the globe. And they are doing well.

Four students opted to take their exams this past May in Fargo, under the direction of a Music Development Program instructor flown in from Saskatchewan. Sophia Lucht and Mya Thelen, 14, of Fargo, received the highest mark possible – First Class Honors with Distinction. Mya’s sister, Victoria, 11, received the second highest distinction. Hailey Bunkowski, who was the first to take the exam in 2012, improved her score by several points.

“There was a lot of work involved for the exams,” says Beth Thelen, mom of Mya and Victoria. “But I think it was good for them to get that feedback. They understand how they are doing and what they should do to get better.”

It’s not all hard work, either, says Mya.

“Miss Paige makes things fun,” she says. “She always has fun games for us to learn the material.”

As she looks down the road, Keiser-Rezac hopes to open a studio on Broadway in Fargo and grow enough to add a teacher or two who also share her same passion for the program. She will keep sharing her love of music with youth.

“My ultimate goal for students is to one day have that place they can go and release, let go, and find a place of solitude that playing music can give you,” says Keiser-Rezac.

“Do you know what it feels like to play a prelude by Bach? There’s nothing like it,” she adds. “Your fingers start moving and the more keys you play the faster you slip into a world where it is only you and the beautiful melodies. Everything else is invisible. After a long day at work, this is what you can promise to come home to. I can give my students that gift. I know it will change their lives.” [AWM]

For more information on Shine Music, to sign up for lessons or Music Appreciation Classes, contact Paige Keiser-Rezac at: (701) 566-3312 or shinemusicarts@gmail.com