Mia Tognoli is a classically trained pianist with interests in improvisation and jazz, and a passion for creative, colorful approaches to music. She has been playing the piano since the age of 12, when she first began begging her parents to let her take lessons. What started as a simple introduction to the instrument blossomed into a lifelong fascination with music. In 2019, she began her first foray into teaching by offering free lessons to K-6 students in her school district. In 2020, she completed the Oregon Music Teacher Association’s Syllabus program before heading to college. In 2024, she completed her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance at Oregon State University in Corvallis, where she also participated in competitive collegiate a cappella and devoted time to accompanying, teaching, and tutoring collegiate music theory students. Throughout her life, Mia has felt incredibly fortunate to have been able to access music education from an early age, and has continually worked to find ways to share this with the people around her.
Mia’s primary goal as a teacher is to enrich her students’ lives by helping them foster a lifelong relationship with music. Her approach to teaching emphasizes creativity, curiosity, and play, because she believes that music should, first and foremost, be fun! As a teacher, she also believes that all students can master a concept if given enough time and instruction. She encourages her students to improve as musicians by deepening their understanding of the material she is teaching as opposed to focusing on rigid expectations or outcomes. For her, it is more important that success is measured internally by recognizing progress and personal achievements. To this end, she aims to guide students of all ages in creativity, self-expression, and discipline that allows them to develop a strong sense of individuality and self-efficacy through developing their craft as a musician.
