Welcome back to another episode of the Piano Part.
I'm Clara Zhang.
I'm Eric Hunter.
I'm Yukimi Song.
Thank you for watching the first episode of Conquer Anxiety with Dr. Skidmore.
We have received such great feedback from you and appreciate your support.
The TPP is a podcast show where three of us invite a guest speaker each month who is in
a field of piano pedagogy, performing arts, recording, recording artists, music technology,
and the wellness of piano studio, the mental health of students, parents, and teachers.
We're very excited about this opportunity to explore a variety of piano related topics
with you and share them.
We already have several exciting guest speakers lined up for the coming months.
We can't wait to learn from each guest and discuss this topic with them on this platform.
If you want to find out more about who we are, what we do, why we started this podcast,
please watch our introductory video on our YouTube channel, or you can listen to it on
our SoundCloud account or click the links listed below.
The guest of this episode is Vera Asamo from Asamo Academy, who is a classical concert
pianist, a piano teacher, and the founder and director of the Formal Piano School of
New York City and now Asamo Academy.
She is going to talk to us.
Hello Vera.
Hello.
Hi Vera.
Hi.
Thank you so much.
Yes.
Thank you so much for inviting me.
It's an honor.
She's going to talk to us about her life as a musician in Russia and in the U.S. and her
experience in building the Piano School and Asamo Academy, one of the most established
piano school and nonprofit organization in New York City area, and how she's transitioning
from PSNYC to now Asamo Academy.
Hello Vera.
Thank you for being with us today.
Yes.
Hello, Clara.
Pleasure.
Can you tell us a little bit of your background, where you're from, how you started your piano
journey, and how you ended up in New York City?
Yes.
Well, it's probably a traditional story of many immigrants that come from Europe or Asia
or any other country in the world.
I grew up in Soviet Union in the city of Moscow, which is a capital.
It was a difficult life living in the Soviet Union because of the past regime and the government
restrictions and regulations.
However, being raised by my parents, my mom was a well-known classical piano teacher with
many, many years of traditions and having students graduate from her studio and then
go to music college and complete their degree.
So she had the legacy that she had built for many years.
And so me growing up in that environment really sort of helped me, like music helps many people
to kind of forget about the maybe not so favorable environment that you live in, but music helped
uplift your spirit and motivate you and inspire you from a human emotional level.
So I have to say I have had rich childhood and teenage years as far as musicians and
artists that were friends of my mom who surrounded her and therefore I was part of that circle.
These were some of the very well-known musicians in Russia.
And it was a very enlightening experience when I look back after being in the United States
for over 30 years now, when I look back, I don't even recall the problems in the Soviet
Union economy and the regime.
I only really remember I have good memories of my upbringing.
And of course as probably you know Russian culture is considered to be one of the top
level musicians and artists and in the performing arts industry whether it's ballet or theater
or even actually literature.
So Russia has produced so many phenomenal masterpieces for all of us to enjoy and grasp
for the rest of our lives and many more generations to come.
So I feel very blessed to grow up in that kind of environment that certainly helped
form me as a musician.
I probably should just say that I've developed that dedication to the arts from I guess young
teenage years.
I knew that music, no matter what I was going to be doing, I knew that music was going to
be a big part of my life because I left Moscow when I was 21.
But very, very young.
I'm here, you know, not equipped with life skills or skills to live on my own or do anything
of that sort.
But on the other hand, I was already, you know, how shall I say, I was not only committed
but I was ready to take some next steps to develop something important.
I didn't know what it was at the time.
Once you came to New York and you went to the junior school for work, right?
And that's absolutely beautiful.
And eventually you started in New York City as a piano teacher.
And how did you start the beginning days as a piano teacher?
What was it like?
It's actually a quite simple story.
I mean, I followed the traditional footsteps of many aspiring, you know, pianist teachers
who after graduation, I want to also mention that after Juilliard, I went to Manus College
of Music to do my masters.
I now also teach part-time at Manus Prep, which I am proud and honored to be on a faculty
for more than 25 years.
So after graduating, I, you know, didn't really know what exactly I was going to do.
I did some performing.
I did some teaching.
I was putting flyers on bus stops.
I was on my bicycle, you know, riding around the city.
And, you know, from one of those flyers, I got a call from a church in Harlem.
And that was in mid-90s, maybe 97.
So at that time, you know, Harlem was not what it is today.
It was, you know, many buildings were abandoned and burned down.
And so it was not an area where you would typically, you know, go for piano lessons.
But the woman I spoke on the phone with was very warm.
And somehow we connected on the phone really well.
And she simply said, I saw your flyer on the bus stop.
We are a church.
We have many kids.
But we cannot afford your private lesson fee.
So maybe you can teach a group class at the church on Sunday after church.
And you know, maybe each child would pay $10.
And I, you know, initially was a little concerned about going to an area I don't know.
But something inside me was like, I should really figure this out and give this a good
try.
I've never taught a group class before.
And so I was still, you know, in my 20s.
I didn't have that much teaching experience, only one-on-one, you know, private lessons.
And so I was kind of intrigued and thought, hmm, I think I can learn something from this.
Right.
And that was really, that was, you know, my initial motivation.
And after I finally went and met the kids, I instantly felt that that was a great, great
opportunity, not, you know, just for me, but also for these kids to get exposure to music
education.
I can definitely help them learn.
Nobody had an instrument at home.
So they were, you know, elementary age kids.
Sure.
And we only used a church electric organ that they practiced on throughout the week.
It was not a beautiful church that you would imagine.
It was just a storefront, right?
So they had that gate that they pulled in and pulled out.
So it was a very simple setup.
But people there were very, very warm and very interested and very thankful in advance
and very grateful.
So that inspired me to really give this my best.
And at first it was like, let's see where that goes.
But then I really was inspired deep in my heart because I saw that kids were progressing
from one week to the next.
They, you know, we used a method book.
I made copies for them and gave them homework and they practiced throughout the week.
So it really was, I didn't know at the time, but it really was a fundamental kind of like
a point in my life where something was happening inside me.
I didn't know it at the time, but it was kind of building up.
And after that experience, I really thought, wait a minute, I think I can do something
with this idea and I can maybe go to local schools and promote group piano lessons for
the children who cannot afford private lessons, which is always a costly commitment for many
parents to take on, especially if they have more than one child.
So that really is how I started.
And then when I saw that became successful, I decided to start an organization.
So how did you come up with the name Piano School of New York City?
It's actually as a funny story because even before I started the school, I was teaching
many private students and one of the parents of my students, she was the one who said,
you know, you should start like a school or something.
You'd be really good at that.
And I was like, really?
And then I went home to my husband and I said, you know, this parent think that I should
start a school.
And so we started talking about it.
Then I went back for my next lesson with the same family next week and I said, what shall
I name the school?
And I think she was drinking cup of coffee and walking between kitchen and living room.
And she was like, I don't know, Piano School of New York.
Oh my gosh.
Yes.
And so and she didn't even think about it.
Right.
And so as she said it, I was like, okay, that sounds good.
I didn't know exactly what, how you were operating your school until I talked to Clara a few
days ago.
And so could you tell us a little bit more?
So I didn't realize it was basically based on the group lesson.
Am I correct?
Correct.
So from the beginning, like I was talking to Clara, my idea of the school was not only
to implement private lessons, but actually grow this kind of programs at local schools.
So as we started the Piano School of New York, that was my mission from the beginning to
really implement group piano class programs at local schools.
We started in Manhattan, you know, all throughout the city.
And we expanded to Brooklyn, to Queens, then later in New Jersey, Rockland County, and
Westchester, little by little.
But it kind of took off rather quickly because there was no such program in many schools.
And we, you know, just promoted with a simple flyer for parents to sign up for inexpensive
classes that their children can join right on the premises of the school for after school.
And yes, it was really a simple idea that took off.
And I'm actually very, very proud of it because I think it helped many children to get their
first, you know, to get their feet wet, if you will, in exploring what the music education
is about.
Some children transitioned from that to private lessons.
Some didn't.
Some really just, you know, stuck with it just for it being an enrichment program.
And you know, we are all musicians, but for those who, let's say, are not musicians, I
think it's important to mention that music as enrichment, it doesn't have to be a serious,
you know, it doesn't have to be serious approach to learning from everyone.
So some children just want to explore and simply see what it's like and simply see if
they like it.
And you know, just even see what it is about because they have no idea.
I think it's a great platform for many children of any age to learn what it is about.
It obviously, we as musicians know it improves their abilities in many ways for young children
from motor skills to coordination to brain activity.
Older kids do better in school and in math, et cetera.
So I think that it's a very important platform, not just for those who want to take it seriously,
but just as an addition to their life and improve their quality of life and their schooling.
So from my understanding that you started as just a regular profit organization or company,
then you had a nonprofit portion of it, correct?
Correct.
So can you, could you tell us about the story, please?
Yes, of course.
So because we were expanding to some not economically well-established areas, as we would go to
different schools, we would be faced with a situation that some parents even at a lower
price for group classes would ask us, do you offer discounts?
Can you give us scholarships?
Can you help us?
What can I do, et cetera?
And that prompted us to do something about it because we wanted all the children to join
regardless of the economic background.
So it was in 2003 that we created a nonprofit scholarship fund that was called Pony, P-O-N-Y,
which is Piano Outreach of New York.
And that was approved by IRS.
And with that scholarship fund, we started raising money among our private students.
So in other words, private students would help us raise some money for our scholarship
fund to be able to give scholarships and discounts to students in economic needs so they too
can join our group classes.
So it remained to be such, you know, so the two organizations function as sisters.
It was the Piano School of New York and Piano Outreach of New York that supported each other.
And it continued through 2016, at which point, well, let me back up a second.
I had a fantastic mentor.
He was actually my student, adult student, who was a, I guess, associated with Goldman
Sachs.
And that adult student helped me greatly to understand the structure of business.
He invited me to participate in different workshops that were free at Goldman Sachs.
They have a program that supports entrepreneurs and also, you know, small business and nonprofits.
So they invited me to be part of that program.
And through that program, they helped me understand that I really should merge my business, the
Piano School of New York, into the nonprofit that we already have and just simply have
one organization that we call Piano School of New York, which is what we did in 2016.
D, C, C, C, C, rest, rest, repeat, C, C, C.
It's so wonderful what you've been doing with the Piano School of New York.
You mentioned your board of directors and it got me thinking, you know, you just started
out as one person teaching group lessons and then you develop this organization and then
a nonprofit.
And what was it like to grow that and work with all these other people?
How do you manage those transitions from starting small to building now this huge successful
organization citywide?
It's a lot of hard work.
I'm not going to, you know, give it an impression that it's something easy to do.
It's sometimes seven days a week, you know, 12 hours a day work on a phone, email, took
years to, you know, to figure out what, which way, which is the right way, many mistakes
along the way.
Coming from mistakes and figuring out what's not to do next time.
Kind of the experience that ultimately made me stronger, made me believe through the positive
experiences that this is worth doing, that this is worth pursuing.
And gave me huge satisfaction to see so many kids and so many families feeling grateful
from the experiences of our programs.
So many teachers also expressed great feeling of reward being part of the organization.
But Jazz at Lincoln Center is one of the very famous, you know, venues, musical venues in
the world.
And you actually rent that place the entire day or something or two days and you host
that piano recitals and they were amazing.
And the venue was obviously fantastic, but also there were so many little students who
participated and played.
And so those students who participated, are they from the piano school who took group
lessons and private lessons?
Yes, absolutely.
A lot of, so because we became a nonprofit in 2016 as a whole organization, the recommendations
that we have received from many advisors were to open up the opportunity for Jazz at Lincoln
Center recitals to local community teachers, to teachers who teach in New York City and
metropolitan area so that it becomes more of a community recitals rather than just feature
the piano school of New York students, which I think is fantastic.
I'm really thrilled that we can do that and invite local teachers to really, you know,
demonstrate their work, to demonstrate their students, to unite as a community, to applaud
teachers for their hard work and feature them.
So that, yes, that has started in 2016.
We have hosted recitals at Jazz at Lincoln Center for many years, but that was just for
our own students.
But from 2016, it became a community type of recitals where teachers like you bring
the best students to participate.
And we feel that we hope to be able to continue now everything is closed, but we hope to be
able, of course, to continue that tradition that lasts.
It would have been, let me think for a second.
I remember our first recitals we hosted when I was pregnant with my daughter and she's
13.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah, so 13, 14 years that we've done annual events at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
So we certainly hope to continue that tradition we want.
So can you tell us now a little bit about Enselmo Academy?
Yes, with pleasure.
It kind of became a natural development to change the name of the school because we have
started offering lessons in other instruments as of last fall.
So in the fall of 2019, we decided to expand our group piano classes that we had offered
in many schools because we received many inquiries.
Do you also teach guitar?
Can you do violin?
Can you do voice?
Can you do this?
Can you do that?
And so because we have a board of directors that is very supportive to guide me in the
process, we decided to, yes, implement additional subjects, additional curriculum to different
schools to give it a try and see how it goes.
So we had hired guitar teachers and violin teachers and voice teachers and promoted it
to many group classes, group class programs at local schools.
And it took off beautifully.
We had great feedback.
And so little by little, the name Piano School of New York sort of became obsolete as we
were promoting those other subjects.
So we started thinking, well, what is the future, what do we do now after so many years
of being the Piano School of New York, what shall we do?
And it was really the board of directors and our advisors who said, well, you know, you've
been the piano school for so many years.
I think you need to think broader.
And since you are implementing so many other subjects and it can only grow in many other
directions that you should really think of a new name and perhaps it should become something
more defining who you are, your story, your life, et cetera.
So it kind of came naturally.
We thought of the name and Anselmo Academy kind of, you know, was a natural choice to
kind of became our brand, our, you know, story to kind of tell our story as to what we have
done.
And it's also unique.
It stands out.
There is no other organization that, you know, is called that name.
So we felt it was a good choice.
And so what we did, we, you know, created a DBA, which is doing business as Anselmo
Academy of Music and the Arts as of this summer, this past summer.
So it's very new.
We created a new website with the help of volunteers.
It's unbelievable as a nonprofit, we get to, you know, be, it's a fantastic platform as
a nonprofit that you attract other businesses, organizations who want to give, who want to
help you.
And so we received a free website from a Braun and Wise organization who worked tirelessly
for eight weeks and created this great new website for us and helped us with tools to
run it, you know, easily and make it easy for navigation for our clients and teachers,
et cetera.
And so we're very grateful to the group of volunteers who helped us with the transition.
And now with Anselmo Academy, we strive to expand to many categories.
We currently offer piano, violin, guitar, voice, and drama, which is brand new because
we've had some inquiries about theater.
And so we felt it was natural because it's also performing arts.
So we expanding in that direction.
And we also starting to offer tutoring because especially nowadays as children do hybrid
version of schooling and maybe some parents are too busy to help them with homework, et
cetera, we think that it's a good platform for our academy to help students to do online
tutoring, math, reading, science, et cetera, to help them, you know, feel confident and
be able to still do well in school under very difficult circumstances that children are
in today.
Yeah.
So I was going to ask you actually, obviously the big elephant in the room is COVID and
how it's affected all of us in music and entertainment and educational industries.
How has it affected you guys?
No different than anybody else.
It's definitely a struggle.
You know, we obviously try our best with our wonderful administrators that we have who
work very hard to communicate with parents and inspire them to continue with music studies
or theater classes at this time.
But of course, it's a very challenging times that I'm sure we all going to remember forever
for all musicians and professionals in performing arts.
We are struggling along.
It's a lesson that I think we are learning of how to deal with unprecedented type of
circumstances.
And I think that overall though, we're going to all hopefully going to come stronger and
better.
And I think I, you know, I strongly believe that music has such power.
So I think COVID is nothing.
I think that we're going to come out stronger than ever after this is over.
And it's going to be a renaissance of arts and music blossoming all around the world.
And we, you know, the huge payback, so to speak, is coming for all musicians and professionals
in this industry, because I believe that it's just a pause.
We are on pause to reflect, to see what it is that we need to do, be creative, don't
complain, right?
Be positive, learn, learn a new skill.
And it's, we are definitely going to reap the fruits of our labor later on.
So I'm just sticking with that thought.
I love it.
Yes, thank you.
Yeah, it's so inspiring to hear you speak that way.
Thank you.
I think that's some inspiration that we could all use right now.
And I agree with you, you know, we've been so isolated all this time, all of us miss
being together in person, making live music, attending live performances.
So I absolutely love this idea of this flourishing that's going to happen once all of this is
over.
I was wondering for new teachers and pianists starting out today, especially in this scary
new world, what would your advice be for them?
You know, the advice would be to be patient, to stay positive, to learn a new skill, read
books, you know, learn new repertoire, read biographies of great musicians, you know,
we all, you know, who obviously went through great struggle in their life, just learn from
it, take it as a learning experience, as a learning curve in their life, and stay positive.
This will pass, we will overcome.
And then after this is over, I guess stay true to yourself.
You know, follow your heart, see what your heart is telling you to do.
It's a journey, right?
You have to discover what passion you have in life, whether it's performing, composing,
teaching combination of all of the above, something else, creating schools or festivals
or, you know, online lessons or whatever that you feel your passion is, follow your heart
and be passionate about it and work hard.
Combination of those few things will get things done.
Thank you so much.
Well, our website is self-explanatory.
It's very easy to see our offerings in piano, violin, guitar, voice.
We actually just added saxophone as of a couple of days ago because we had a student who inquired
and we now have a new saxophone teacher.
It's AnselmoAcademy.org and anyone who's interested can explore our websites and ask
questions, we would be happy to answer.
And as far as what's so special about Anselmo Academy, it's the community of our staff,
of our teachers who are deeply dedicated to the work, to the pursuit of implementing music
and arts education in student lives.
We currently offer online and in-person lessons.
It really is just based on the client preference.
So if someone is ready to start doing in-person lessons with social distancing, we would find
a teacher who's also comfortable doing this kind of lessons and we would implement that.
So we just navigate one day at a time about this hybrid form of lessons.
Thank you so much, Vera, for being interviewed by us today.
It was such an honor and I always consider you as one of my great mentors in the beginning
days in New York City.
And I think what you talked to, you know, Yuhimi and Eric about these managing artists
and I think I can be a great testimonial, right?
And in the beginning days, really, it was just very different.
You know, I was teaching in the university before I came to New York.
And I remember when you hired me, you know, within a few hours, really, when I wrote to
you, you were so efficient and you were like, Clara, you can do this, you know.
And I went to this tiny little preschool in Queens and taught these like two, three-year-old
toddlers piano lessons.
And a few months in, we were performing jazz in the center.
You were like, Clara, you know, they have it and just be patient.
So I really learned so much.
And I think that's really just the most wonderful way as artists, actually, it's a very humbling
experience to have all this.
And so, and I really think that you are one of the most successful, probably, business
lady in New York City in the music education sector in New York.
So I would love to hear all of your website and your, you have a social media account
on Instagram and on Facebook, is that right?
Yes, correct.
All of the social media icons are on our website.
So any interested individuals can just click on the icon to go to our Facebook, Instagram
pages that is updated with many videos and recitals and et cetera.
So besides the gifted and talented recitals that we spoke briefly, I want to also mention
that a few years back, we started a youth competition.
And youth competition has the same formula as gifted and talented recitals that we invite
local teachers to demonstrate the best students at our youth competition.
We actually just strategizing now to see what can we do this year because nothing is open.
So are we going to postpone it or do it online?
We don't know yet.
We're still, we're still thinking about it.
Wow.
It, you have such creativity and you know, it's really a combination of being an artist
and being an entrepreneur or a business lady.
And yeah, it's all of these is combined.
That is really an inspiration, I think for the musicians of this generation.
So thank you so much for being on our panel.
Thank you so much.
I love you, Clara, you Kimi, Eric.
I really am deeply honored.
And you know, I cannot thank you enough for this time today and for hearing my story.
I really appreciate it.
So that concludes our second episode of our piano podcast.
Thank you Vera Samo for joining our program.
And we want to thank our audience for watching or listening to this episode.
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