Finding a Place for Faith at Piano Lessons

As a Christ-centered Conservatory, our mission is to “develop talent and testimony” in everything we do. At the heart of our philosophy are the ideas that music is a God-given gift and that we have a responsibility to develop and share that gift. When I began teaching at the Utah Piano Conservatory, I was so excited about being able to help my students connect their music and their faith. What I didn’t expect was some of the conversations that would lead me to that point… here’s one of those from just last week.

As we often do at the beginning of his lesson, Asher (age 6) and I were talking about how his week had been. He told me about his little sister, and I asked how old she was; Asher told me she was 2, and then very excitedly said, “In two years, I’ll be EIGHT!” When I asked him what would happen when he turned 8, he immediately replied, “I’ll get resurrected!!”

Trying not to laugh, I suggested that maybe he meant he’d get baptized (in the LDS faith, most children are baptized at age 8), since a person had to be dead first to be resurrected. He didn’t seem to like the idea of dying before he was 8, so he quickly corrected himself. It started with a silly moment, but we were able to talk for a minute about what it meant to be baptized and why he wanted to do so. It’s been short conversations like these that have shown me how easy it is to make testimony a part of piano lessons!

Not only are teachers encouraged to have these types of interactions with our students regularly, we try to provide other opportunities for students to develop both talent and testimony. Students learn hymns and Primary songs; we feature and discuss a monthly “virtue for virtuosos;” quarterly Community Outreach performances promote using musical talents to serve others; and so much more! I love watching my students grow in so many different areas. As President Boyd K. Packer once observed, ““We are able to feel and learn very quickly through music, through art, through poetry some spiritual things that we would otherwise learn very slowly.” Thanks Asher for sharing your faith with me this week!