Akron Music Institute

Meet Theron Brown (like you don’t already know him!), the inaugural member of our jazz piano faculty! “I get a lot of joy from teaching piano. The best part is when a student finds their unique voice through improvising.” ––Theron

Happy Mother’s Day to our fabulous administrative assistant, Melissa! Thank you for all you do for our faculty and students! You are the glue behind our beloved school 🫶🏻

One of the unique events at AMI is our annual Ear Training Olympics, which took place at the Akron Art Museum last month! This is a competition focused on music theory and ear training, an essential skill as a musician. This year, we had a beginner and an advanced division!

Beginner contestants competed for cash prizes by correctly identifying melodic intervals by ear! Congratulations to students Mary, Isaac, and Grayson who took first, second, third place respectively!

Advanced contestants had to correctly identify intervals, triads, 7th chords, and scales by ear. All 3 of our contestants this year had perfect pitch, which made for an exciting competition ending in a “harmonic sudden death,” with the students having to duke it out with harmonic versions in all categories. Congrats to Brock, Arthur, and Edna who took first, second, and third place respectively!

Until next year! 🥇🥈🥉

AMI piano faculty member Gerardo Teissonnière will be presenting a solo program of Soler, Chopin, and Beethoven this summer at Cleveland Institute of Music! Free and open to the public. More information available here: https://gerardoteissonniere.com/event/cleveland-recital/

More great news from the Aurora School of Music Young Artist Piano Competition! AMI piano student Brock Haskins secured 2nd place in the most advanced division and a $325 prize! Brock played a brilliant program of Bach, Haydn, and Rachmaninoff. Bravo on job well done!

Brock is a student of Alexandre Marr.

Congratulations to AMI piano student, the fabulous Charlie Forcella, who took 3rd place out of 14 at the Aurora School of Music Young Artist Piano Competition — her first competition! She played a Clementi sonatina, a Burgmüller etude, and Zez Confrey’s “Dizzy Fingers.” SO proud of all of her hard work and dedication to our instrument! Brava Charlie!!! 👏🏻

Charlie is a student of Alexandre Marr.

Congratulations to AMI student Reid Jeffers who jut committed to Long Island University with a full scholarship to pursue a BFA in Musical Theater! Congrats Reid — SO proud of you and your bright future ahead! Reid is a student of Cody Burroughs.

I think it’s time for a bigger backdrop 🙌🏻
HUGE congratulations to all of the incredible AMI students who performed in our Spring 2026 recitals this weekend! It was an inspiring and intensely emotional 2 days of music. We are overwhelmed and humbled to see this school growing at the pace that it is.

Thank you to our loyal families and incredible faculty for all you do to help make magic on that stage. Much love to the incredible Akron Art Museum for hosting us yet again. Until next time! 🖤✨🙌🏻