Why Online Lessons?

We've heard from many of you asking both when we will be able to return to in-person lessons, as well as why we are working only online with our students. The first answer is, we don't know. But the second answer is simple: safety. And we have the science to back it up.

The chart you see is from the British Medical Journal, documenting the COVID-19 transmission risk relating to different activities. That bottom row of each part shows musical activities - singing, shouting, projecting your voice. According to the BMJ, music is the riskiest activity right now. The room is an enclosed space (you want to have a closed door to prevent sound leaking out) and we are in contact for a prolonged time (30 minutes at a minimum, often much longer). We also encounter dozens of different people in our building common areas and studios. Each family has its own social bubble and delicate balance, with family members who may be at greater risk for illness. This is in addition to lots of shared equipment (pianos, our digital music production facilities, studio string instruments) which would not be able to stand up to wear-and-tear of constant sanitizing.

At the end of the day, the health of our faculty, students and community is our top priority. We know a lot of you want to see us in the same space; we do too!  But right now, we want to keep everyone safe. Our Online Academy has been incredibly successful for all our students - even the ones starting from scratch during lockdown!

We promise that as soon as it is safe to resume any of our lessons in person, we will. And in the meantime, we promise that your music education will never be compromised.