Chicago-based Piano Studio offering in-person and virtual instruction tailored to your musical goals
Abigail Arkley is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.M. in Piano Performance under the tutelage of Dr. Christopher Taylor. She has had the honor of performing in Aqui Terme, Italy as part of a two-week artist residency, was a featured soloist with the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra, and a performer on NPR’s ‘From The Top’ broadcasted from Berkeley, California as the recipient
of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Scholarship Award. She is a winner of the UW Beethoven Competition, the Schubert Club Competition, and the Rising Stars Concerto Competition, to name a few. Abigail is an avid arranger and composer, performing original music for the UW Division of the Arts, the Chazen Museum of Art’s ‘Southern Rites’ exhibition, the UW School of Human Ecology ‘THREADS’ fashion show, UW’s premier women’s a ca****la group Tangled Up in Blue, and the Wisconsin Union Theater’s Community Performance Showcases. In her teaching, Abigail has experience running a studio of over 35 students of many ages and stages, ranging from 5-18 years old, beginners to advanced players. Abigail places specific emphasis on healthy technique, mindful playing, and contemplative practice. She believes it is crucial to instill at a young age an awareness of body and mind connectedness, and the power music holds to bring balance to both. She draws from both the Lister-Sink Method and self-authored teaching objectives. These were shaped heavily by her own experiences with injury recovery, and courses she took in piano pedagogy and musician mindfulness at the MA level with Dr. Jessica Johnson during her undergraduate studies at UW-Madison. Abigail uses her extensive training to give conscious musicianship tools to students reaching for their highest level of personal artistry. By weaving together her intensive classical education and professional background with her passion for teaching artistry and joyful musicianship, she creates an approach that is intuitive, rich, structured, and kind.
