I love to teach music.

Hi, I’m Kimmi Fodor. With 20 years of experience and a heart full of love, I offer an approach to music education designed for students to develop musical fluency, creativity, and confidence through joyful engagement with music from an early age.

My teaching combines elements of classical training, composition, storytelling, and creative play. I work with both piano and violin students and design my own curriculum with original materials, games, stories, and of course, music by many fabulous composers. In my studio, students engage with classical repertoire, popular music, my own original compositions, and music written by fellow students within the studio community.

A central part of my approach is helping children experience music as a language rather than a performance-driven discipline. Students are instructed not only to interpret music accurately, but to actively participate in creating it as young composing artists.

To make music more accessible to growing minds, I use a color-based musical system to help students develop pattern recognition, audiation, transposition, improvisation, and composition skills as they gain confidence in navigating musical ideas. Students who work with me will learn to color-code sheet music and compose with colored notation. It is only after my students have a strong understanding of music theory that I transition them to reading black and white notation.

Lessons with me unfold differently than traditional conservatory-style instruction, especially in the early stages. I prioritize playfulness, curiosity, somatic awareness, and foundational skills over perfecting repertoire. However, I believe there is plenty of satisfaction in mastering classical repertoire, and as students progress, I encourage rigorous study for students to experience that sense of accomplishment as they become capable and creative artists.

My goal is not to shape every child into the same kind of musician, but to help each student develop enough musical literacy, creativity, and technical foundation to discover what kind of musical artistry most authentically suits their unique gifts and interests.

I also thoughtfully incorporate AI tools into parts of my creative and pedagogical process and care deeply about using these technologies in ways that support my students in their artistic development. I fully respect that families have differing levels of comfort and interest regarding AI, and I approach it on a case-by-case basis according to each family’s preferences. This is probably a good place to mention that AI helps me generate content for this site.

What matters most to me in my relationships with my clients is that I remain in sync with them about how we are supporting their child’s musical development. If you’re ready to get started, I would love to meet and talk about how music fits into the way you are raising your child and get on the same page about how we’re moving forward with this musical journey.