MELISSA MONTEZ, Piano Instructor and Beginning Violin (Croton on Hudson and Mohegan Lake Locations)

Originally from Iowa, Melissa Montez earned her music degree from Brigham Young University before moving to the Bay Area in California where she taught music and history at the renowned Challenger School for nearly a decade.  While in California, she played violin in the San Jose State Symphony and sang with Opera San Jose.  Since moving to New York, she has taught piano lessons for more than twenty years in Westchester County, maintaining a private studio of more than two dozen students, ranging in age from four to sixty-eight.  A firm believer in developing well-rounded musicians, she incorporates ear training, theory, music history, and sight-reading into her lessons.  When she isn’t teaching music lessons, you’ll see her teaching yoga in various local studios and gyms, editing one of her books, running the Yorktown Family History Center, or homeschooling her children.