Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Bouse.
Hi Sarah, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
As a little kid, I went to see The Nutcracker with my family. I was taken with the live orchestra, not the dancers, and started begging my mom for violin lessons. I eventually started playing piano when I was nine years old, and the rest is history!
I came to Houston in 2013 for a masters degree at Rice University, where I studied with Thomas Jaber and worked with the opera department. During the pandemic, I joined all the other students of the world in going to online school and pursued a remote degree at Teachers College of Columbia University. Learning about music education through that program helped me become an even better piano teacher. Today I maintain a studio of about 40 private piano students. Music is for everyone and I’ve been privileged to teach students of all ages and ability levels. Currently, my youngest students are four years old and my oldest student is 75.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not always been smooth sailing! In December 2024, I suffered two strokes. These strokes have left me with reduced function in my left hand, which means a lot of hard work to get back to a competent level of playing piano. I am grateful, though, because during my recovery process, all my students and their families were compassionate and flexible when I wasn’t able to drive or had to move lessons around due to physical and occupational therapy appointments. Continuing to work with children and see their joy and accomplishments while I was working hard to physically and mentally recover from an extreme medical emergency was what gave me the motivation to keep going. It didn’t hurt that lots of them brought me flowers, candy, cards, and drew me pictures to keep my spirits up.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As a music teacher, I am equally as passionate about education as I am about music. In addition to teaching piano, I also work as a writing instructor where I teach middle and high schoolers how to write essays. Not every student will become the next Mozart or the next Hemingway, but every student is capable of learning how to think and communicate. I love teaching students how to think critically and communicate their thoughts and ideas, whether that’s through classical music or research papers. I’m a strong believer in finding each student’s natural strengths and playing to those strengths while also helping them improve where they need to.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Skydiving does not sound like a good time to me, so I’m not that kind of a risk-taker! However, if there is a need that is not filled, I will take risks and think creatively to meet that need. This has affected how I run my piano studio.
For me it was a big risk to establish my own LLC and primarily work for myself as a musician. From 2016-2020, I taught a lot of piano lessons through other music schools, took gigs playing piano for performances, and generally looked outside myself for my income stream. However, when the COVID lockdown happened, I realized that I had the ability to run my own business the way I wanted to. I established my LLC in 2023 and started running my own business. I am able to set my own rates and policies. More importantly, though, it offers me the chance to engage in best practices as a teacher. I can use different books and curriculum for students with different needs. I have taught students with both intellectual and physical disabilities, and since I don’t have a supervisor telling me what to do, I can use my expertise and knowledge to bring music to students with various needs.
Pricing:
- $160/month for 30-minute piano lessons
Contact Info:
- Other: sarahbousepiano@gmail.com
Image Credits
TK Photography TX
