The California Conservatory of Music

The California Conservatory of Music Music Lessons for All Ages and Levels.

Meet Zaara Shareef, our Student of the Month.Zaara is eleven, and she has been singing with Teacher Gaby at our Sunnyval...
09/04/2026

Meet Zaara Shareef, our Student of the Month.

Zaara is eleven, and she has been singing with Teacher Gaby at our Sunnyvale location for four years. She plays piano and volleyball, she has two cats, and she would like to be a lawyer, a governor, or the President.

Her advice for someone just starting voice lessons: arrive on time, and practice after your lessons.

Ask her what she loves about singing and she says, discovering new ways to improve her vocal skills. Ask her about her best memory here and it's the recitals. "All the parents clap at the end, and it makes me feel I did an awesome job."

Congratulations, Zaara.

https://thecaliforniaconservatory.com/voice-student-of-the-month-zaara-shareef/

Amy Beach was composing before she could reach the pedals.She was improvising harmony at two. She taught herself to read...
09/02/2026

Amy Beach was composing before she could reach the pedals.

She was improvising harmony at two. She taught herself to read at three. At four she spent a summer at her grandfather's farm in New Hampshire, where there was no piano, so she wrote three waltzes in her head and played them when she got home.

She had one year of formal composition lessons. After that she built her own course of study, copying out whole symphony scores and memorizing them to learn how they worked.

In 1896 the Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered her Gaelic Symphony, the first symphony written and published by an American woman.

Born September 5, 1867.

https://thecaliforniaconservatory.com/amy-beach-september-composer-of-the-month/

Itzhak Perlman turns 81 today.He was pulled toward the violin at three, after hearing one on the radio. He caught polio ...
08/31/2026

Itzhak Perlman turns 81 today.

He was pulled toward the violin at three, after hearing one on the radio. He caught polio at four. He has performed seated ever since, and he has spent decades pressing concert halls to be places disabled people can actually get into.

Fifteen competitive Grammy Awards, plus a Lifetime Achievement Award. The Presidential Medal of Freedom. The violin you hear in Schindler's List. He plays a Stradivari made in 1714 that once belonged to Yehudi Menuhin, and has done since 1986.

The Perlman Music Program, founded by his wife Toby, is built around a phrase we are fond of: connection over competition.

Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 4.0

https://thecaliforniaconservatory.com/itzhak-perlman-august-musician-of-the-month/

The quietest benefits of music lessons are the best-supported ones.Children who learn an instrument develop finer contro...
08/26/2026

The quietest benefits of music lessons are the best-supported ones.

Children who learn an instrument develop finer control of their hands and become better at hearing subtle differences in pitch. Researchers can measure both, and both are worth developing, whatever a child grows up to do.

The article offers a fuller picture: what the research actually shows, along with what fifteen years of music lessons have taught us to notice.

https://thecaliforniaconservatory.com/benefits-of-music-lessons/

Fall lessons are filling up at all three locations.If your child has been asking, or you have been meaning to start and ...
08/24/2026

Fall lessons are filling up at all three locations.

If your child has been asking, or you have been meaning to start and never quite got to it, a free introductory lesson is the easiest way to find out whether it fits. Just time with a teacher and an instrument.

Sunnyvale, Fremont and Redwood City. Guitar, piano, violin and voice lessons for kids and adults.

https://thecaliforniaconservatory.com/freeintroclass/

In 1913 a nineteen-year-old walked into the most prestigious competition in French music, went up against men six years ...
08/21/2026

In 1913 a nineteen-year-old walked into the most prestigious competition in French music, went up against men six years older, and took the first prize. Lili Boulanger was the first woman ever to do it, and she carried 31 of the 36 votes.

She was born on this day in 1893. Her health had been fragile since she was two, and she worked around it, writing from a chair or from bed on the harder days. In five extraordinary years she produced many of the works for which she is now best known. She died in March 1918, at twenty-four.

Her sister Nadia spent the next sixty-one years making sure that music was published, performed and taught. It is largely thanks to her that we can still hear it.

If you have never heard her, start with D'un matin de printemps. Five minutes of a spring morning.

https://thecaliforniaconservatory.com/lili-boulanger-august-composer-of-the-month/

First time through without stopping. The chord change that finally stopped hurting. A scale played evenly, twice in a ro...
08/19/2026

First time through without stopping. The chord change that finally stopped hurting. A scale played evenly, twice in a row.

These are the wins that help a child feel that progress is happening, and they almost never come up at dinner. Recitals and certificates are easy to notice. The quiet ones are the ones that build a musician.

Catch one this week and say it out loud. That is the whole trick.

What is something small your child got right lately?

Progress in music is quieter than most parents expect. The things that are easy to notice, faster playing and louder pla...
08/17/2026

Progress in music is quieter than most parents expect. The things that are easy to notice, faster playing and louder playing and another page turned, are not usually what a teacher is watching for.

1. They stop at the hard measure instead of starting over. Beginners go back to the top every time something goes wrong. A growing musician finds the actual problem, slows it down, and works on that. It sounds worse from the next room. It is better practice.

2. They hear it before you say anything. An unprompted "wait, that wasn't right" means they have built a picture in their head of how it should sound. They cannot fix what they cannot yet hear, so this one comes first.

3. They have gotten fussier about their own playing. This one worries parents and it shouldn't. As the ear sharpens, the range of what counts as good enough narrows. They haven't gotten worse. They have started hearing things they couldn't hear a year ago.

4. Last year's piece has quietly become easy. This is the one you can test this week. Ask for something from twelve months ago and listen for what has stopped being difficult.

5. They pick it up when nobody asked. Two minutes of messing about counts. It means the instrument is starting to feel like theirs rather than something scheduled.

None of these show up on a certificate. The most meaningful progress is often the quietest.

Which of these have you noticed lately?

Our August Student of the Month is Constantine Chua.Constantine is 16 and has been playing guitar at our Sunnyvale locat...
08/15/2026

Our August Student of the Month is Constantine Chua.

Constantine is 16 and has been playing guitar at our Sunnyvale location for five years, studying with Teacher Abshir. He runs varsity track and cross country as well, and brings the same steadiness to the instrument.

His advice for anyone just starting out: only learn pieces that you enjoy and can get excited about playing.

Congratulations, Constantine!

https://thecaliforniaconservatory.com/guitar-student-of-the-month-constantine-chua/

Five minutes.That is genuinely enough for a young student who is just starting, and it surprises nearly every parent who...
08/12/2026

Five minutes.

That is genuinely enough for a young student who is just starting, and it surprises nearly every parent who hears it. The length was never really the point. What matters is how well those minutes get spent.

We have a saying here: practice makes permanence, not practice makes perfect. Whatever a student repeats is what they learn, mistakes included. A careful five minutes is worth more than a distracted thirty.

How much your child needs will change with the student and the stage, and their teacher will tell you what that looks like right now.

What we do count is showing up. Thirty days earns a ribbon and a certificate. Fifty earns a medal. A hundred days earns a trophy and your name on our Wall of Fame. A year and beyond earns another trophy and another plaque.

Address

546 Lawrence Expressway
Sunnyvale, CA
94085

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 9pm
Tuesday 9am - 9pm
Wednesday 9am - 9pm
Thursday 9am - 9pm
Friday 9am - 9pm
Saturday 9am - 6pm
Sunday 9am - 5pm

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