Aida Khorsandi

Educational Background

• Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance (Piano), University of Arts, Tehran
• Master of Arts in Music Psychology Training, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
• Orff Pedagogy Level I Certificate, The Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, Canada

Aida began her musical studies as a young child. She was a member of Pars Children’s Choir that performed at famous music venues in Tehran, Iran since the 1990s. Pars Choir has sung in different languages and musical genres such as Jazz, Classical, Folk and Iranian orchestral music. Aida studied music performance at Tehran University of Art with Piano as her main instrument and flute as her second instrument. In addition, she took opera singing lessons for many years during and after her studies at university. After graduation from University of Art, Aida worked as a piano teacher.

Pursuing her interest in teaching and learning. Aida completed a course and an internship in early childhood music education in Pars Music Institute, the most reputable children’s music institute in Iran. She then continued her journey in music and human cognition through studying cognitive science of music at University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. She obtained a master’s degree in music psychology research with a focus on affective science of music.

Aida has worked at The Royal Conservatory of Music since 2015. Currently, she is a Smart Start™ teacher and a teacher assistant in Smart Start™ for ASD courses. Aida has earned certificates in Orff Pedagogy and Smart Start™ Foundations teacher training.

In addition to teaching music, Aida has worked as a research assistant at the Department of Psychology and Education at Ryerson University in Toronto, She is also working on a freelance bilingual writing project in the field of music cognition and psychology in Farsi and English.