Autumn Zander, piano, joined the MacPhail faculty in 2012 and has been teaching for over 18 years. She enjoys working with students of all ages and abilities. With the Frances Clark quote “There is music in every child. The teacher’s job is to find it and nurture it.” as the guiding tenet of her teaching philosophy, Autumn strives to help students of all ages achieve their musical best. By helping young students develop a strong musical foundation and enhancing the musicality in older students, every individual can enjoy a music-filled life. Lessons go beyond “just reading the notes” and explore aspects of music theory, improvisation, music history and collaboration in order to create a sense of relevancy to daily life.
With a keen interest in pedagogy, her most recent project will enable her to attend the Golandsky Institute Summer Symposium to learn more about the Taubman Approach to piano technique in August 2018. She has written feature length articles and book reviews for American Music Teacher, Clavier Companion, Piano Journal of the European Piano Teachers Association and the Australian magazine The Piano Teacher.
Autumn is a performing member of Thursday Musical and a regular presenter at the Minnesota Music Teachers Association State Convention. A Nationally Certified Teacher of Music, she holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance & Pedagogy from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin and a Masters of Music degree in Piano Performance & Pedagogy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
