Monika Kasprzak


Monika Kasprzak is a highly accomplished pianist who has been pursuing excellence in pianism and performing since a very young age and also an experienced and qualified instructor with over 25 years of teaching experience and over 2,800 performances to her credit.
 
Firmly rooted in solid background and knowledge of serious classical repertoire through her training by top teachers of the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto, Tanya Tkachenko and Margaret Parsons-Poole, throughout her childhood and teens, and completing the rigorous workload of weekly lessons and classes of history, harmony and theoretical requirements for the ARCT Piano Performance Degree at the age of 17.  She continued her classical studies at University of Toronto where she obtained a Bachelor of Music Degree and after a short detour, of performing, went back to University to obtain a Master of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from ETSU.

What sets her apart is her equal strength in other musical genres and styles of which she began learning the foundations of at the age of 12 and continued to develop throughout her entire teens.  Besides solo classical concert piano training, she developed an excellent sense of ensemble playing from playing piano duos and duets since the age of 12, as part of a very successful piano duo which was awarded many prizes in festivals with marks of 94%, 96% and 97% and ultimately 1st place in Canada in Canadian Music Competition at 19. Later participation in the chamber music studies programme at Banff School of Performing Arts included master classes and coaching by Ruth Laredo and Gilbert Kalish.

A third stream Monika's deep passion for piano music was not just in the boundaries of classical.  She considers her first "professional" experience when she played piano for the school choir and accompanied her school's entire musical play also at the age of 12.   In high school she was the pianist for 2 more musicals the last of which she composed her own overture and played in a pit band with guitaist Jeff Healey.

A fourth stream of musical experience commenced at the age of 13 in high school where she spend 5 years playing in the big bands at Etobicoke Collegiate Institute which had a stellar music program lead by Robert Judge and Don Strathdee with whom they won a 3rd place in Canada at the National Stage Band Finals.  She was equally inspired by the greatest jazz and modern pianists who improvise, so she was interested in enrolling in jazz classes with Phil Nimmons, jazz arranging with Dave Elliott, orchestration classes with Walter Buczynski and Lothar Klein, and also modern piano improvisation studies with Casey Sokol at York University.

Her high standards have been acknowledged numerous times throughout her life with a Distinguished Musicianship Award from University, Board of Education Music Award from her high school and dozens of awards from local competitions and scholarships including she also had received outstanding  praises at competitions from Bela Siki, and Clive Lithgoe obtaining  marks of 94% and 96%.

After much requests, she finally recorded a CD "A Steinway Christmas" which is a culmination, fusing the styles in her own unique mosaics of piano arrangements/improvisations and was recognized as runner-up in the SoloPiano.com Best Holiday CD of the Year 2013. 

Monika has been teaching privately and class piano since the age of 20 and is passionate about piano music and hopes to pass on the great wealth of knowledge that she has about the true art of playing piano to the next generation. Being a perfectionist my whole life I strive for excellence in anything I do including bringing out the best possible talent in my students. I also have a very highly attuned sensitivity to a student’s inherent challenges and work to facilitating a successful path to their learning process. I will tailor a program designed especially to suit your needs. My websites are: www.mimicopianolessons.com www.mimicopianolessons.ca