Neighborhood Music School

After a very long hiatus from playing the clarinet, I began studying with Julie Asuma Levene at NMS. What a wonderful experience. She is an excellent teacher and ensemble coach. Several years ago she had a studio recital, and I had an opportunity to meet many of her students. The ages ranged from young children to senior citizens. We all agreed that she was terrific and we were lucky to have her as a teacher.

I have been an adult piano student at NMS for 20+years studying with Rebecca Raffaelli and Mary Bloom. The experience was life changing, involving me in the wonderful arts community. Mary gathered a group of us together several years ago to be part of the «monster piano ensemble group» so named because we were as many as 10 – 12 hands on four pianos plus keyboards. We were a jolly group until the School was renovated eliminating the space the contained all those instruments. We reformed into duos which my partner and pal, Carol, continue today. Read Jean C’s Unilocal review. Her children study with Mary via Skype. Jean speaks to the special quality of Mary Bloom’s teaching.

I am an adult student who has taken flute lessons given by a Elaine Thomas for the past 8 years off and on. Elaine is a wonderful flutist, and a kind, compassionate, yet motivating instructor, I have never experienced her as anything but totally professional, invested in her students, and sharing her love of music, particularly playing the flute. She is a wonderful instructor and has taught me and many others to love playing music. Thank you Elaine!

I came back to my flute after a 40 year hiatus. No small matter, I took a free trial lesson with Elaine Thoma, just to see if I should bother to overcome all I had forgotten in that time. I haven’t looked back and I continue to take lessons at NMS with Elaine. She is patient, loves teaching and playing and she is a consummate professional. I attribute much of my rediscovery of the joys of playing music to Elaine and the opportunity to study with her at NMS.

My 11 year old son has been taking lessons at NMS for two years. Every minute I spent at the NMS with him is another minute that makes me love this place more. The teachers at NMS have made an enormous difference in my son’s life and have really given him the chance to be somebody. He has truly cone into his own there and I adore this school because of it. Thank you, NMS!

The Neighborhood Music School is an impressive place, that I wish I knew about earlier. Their mission is to help people of all ages and backgrounds learn music, everyone from small children to seniors. There’s even a class just for seniors! You don’t have to be a kid or aiming for Carnegie Hall.
I don’t know as much about this, but they also appear to be a community meeting place for musicians. They organize a lot of ensembles.
The Yale community doesn’t seem to be aware of the organization, even though a lot of people would benefit from an alternative to Yale ensembles.
I took the beginning adult group singing class with Ingeborg. Including myself, there were 6 students, ranging from 20s-​60s. I can only give the teacher my highest recommendation. She is an energetic, engaging teacher who has the utmost regard and care for her students. I’ve had 8 years of piano lessons and know some classical music, and from talking to her, I could tell she really knew her stuff. She had even heard of this obscure Broadway musical that I was sure she wouldn’t know. Her explanations of vocal technique were clear and easy to follow even if you didn’t have any music background. I almost cracked up laughing at how hard she worked to convince the students that vocal technique is fun. But it worked. Almost everyone wanted to continue the class in the fall.
If you’re an adult wanting to learn piano or voice for the first time, it’s hard to imagine a better teacher than Ingeborg.

The Neighborhood Music School is a great asset to the community for music and dance instruction. While the focus is on kids, there’s room for adults as well. The NMS provides comprehensive lessons from early childhood up through the most advanced levels.
The instruction is generally good to excellent, but as with many things its important to focus on the right fit between the teacher and the student. One real positive about NMS is that they have many teachers from which to choose and all of them are skilled in their subjects.
Equally important is the atmosphere, which is overall very friendly and student focused. Of course, the work can be challenging, but the instructors are genuinely interested in their students and modulate the work to the appropriate level.