About Cynthia

I'm a classical singer and a classical music teacher in piano and voice, specialising in Baroque and pre-Baroque music.

I have a Master of Music degree from Texas A & M-Commerce, a B.A. in Psychology, which was really Neuroscience, and have studied at conservatories in France and the Czech Republic, in addition to studying with numerous private teachers.

I perform regularly and my performance schedule sometimes requires me to learn 150 pages of music per week. Fortunately, I sightread like crazy!

My methods of teaching are a combination of the best practices I have found in the USA and Europe (but primarily from Europe). Each region has its strengths and I have done my best to integrate them into my studio.

My students range from age 4 up to those in their retirement, and I've had only four students quit taking lessons in twenty years, so I must be doing something right!

For piano students, I start out by integrating sight-reading, playing with both hands, and playing classical music from the first lesson. That's right, the four-year-olds are playing classical music with both hands, and sightreading, on the first day. I have a system of graded pieces that provide for very fast progress, so that Mozart sonatas are usually assigned in the second or third year.

For voice students, I work exclusively on technique until that is near perfect, and then apply it to repertoire. Most students see a dramatic improvement about the third lesson.

Here's where to go if you're interested in taking lessons or reading what my students have to say about lessons with me.

I also write articles for ehow.com and infobarrel.com, answers for Yahoo!answers, and rate and review items for Amazon.com, and you can find those items at the "Where to buy" link in the right-hand navigation bar.

And as for what I do in my copious free time, when I'm not doing business-related stuff, I am a history geek and love the Middle Ages. I make a lot of things that medieval people made for themselves--clothes, soap, wine, cider, paper . . . and read a lot of medieval literature as well. And now I've started writing a book, which I expect to finish by autumn (way more on that later).

In the Strange but True file, I'm also the reigning world expert (as far as I know) on Baroque French drinking songs.

I sing in the choir at St. Nicholas Church, McKinney, Texas, and serve on the parish council as the Tsarina of Public Relations. Our church also has a blog which resides here. We're in the process of building a new church just off of the square in McKinney, which will have a lavender memorial garden, herb gardens, and is constructed in a very environmentally friendly way.

Author: Cynthia Wunsch

Tags: Performing, Classical Music, Music Research, Music, About: Authors, Music Lessons Last modified 12:51 Sun, 31 Jan 2010 by CynthiaWunsch. Accessed 1,034 times Children What Links Here Share Except where expressly noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.