By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Finding a studio to teach music in Bowling Green was an answer to a prayer for Susan Holtzscher.
Before she started teaching piano lessons in Bowling Green, she was employed by Cedarville University in southern Ohio. She worked in residence life as well as teaching piano. She wanted to focus on music.
Her mother in Monroe, Michigan told her Bible study group about her daughters’s desire. One member of the group worked in the office of the Music Department at the University of Toledo. One day, the office got a call from a couple who were looking to take over their piano studio in Bowing Green.
The information was passed on to Holtzscher, and in 2008 she started teaching in piano in Bowling Green.
The Studio Connection now offers private and class piano instruction as well as lessons in voice and other instruments. And for children from infancy through age 9 Musikgarten classes.
Recently Musikgarten, based in Greenville, North Carolina, honored Holtzscher with the Musikgarten Exemplary Program Award for offering the full range of courses.
Studio Connection is one of 37 programs in the country to receive the honor.
In the press release, the founder of the program Dr. Lorna Heyge stated: “Parents know how important music education is and they choose Musikgarten specifically for
our deeply researched, proven approach that helps nurture social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development in their children.”
The students start attending classes with their parents, listening to patterns, simple melodies, and rhythms, then imitating those sounds, and eventually moving on to piano instruction.
Holtzscher said she just recently has gotten students through the third year of keyboard. Convincing them to stay with the program is sometimes difficult, she said. Often they want to move right to private lessons.
The Musikgarten piano classes have the advantage of building seamlessly on the lessons learned earlier. “I encourage those who’ve done the Musikgarten classes to continue on with that.”
Musikgarten emphasizes students developing their musical ear by listening and singing back. Reading music comes later, she said.
The earliest lessons involve “rocking, finger play, chants, and just really immersing them with dances,” she said. The parents learn how to incorporate music into play at home, and they are encouraged to sing to their babies even if the parent doesn’t think they have a good voice. “It’s a bond,” Holtzscher said. “All kids love their parents’ voices.”
As the classes progress, she said, “the youngsters become more independent.”
Holtzscher herself started piano at age 5.Her mother was an elementary music teacher and had her three daughters take piano lessons. Holtzscher, the youngest, persisted longer.
But, she said, “I didn’t get serious about it until college.”
She attended Monroe Community College to study math on a full ride music scholarship for voice, not piano. She sang in the choir and took vocal music classes.
After transferring to Cedarville University, a private Christian college, she decided to switch her major to piano pedagogy. Cedarville was the rare small college that offered the degree.
After graduating she continued working at the school. She taught some private lessons. She has certification from the Music Teachers National Association and has done graduate work at Ohio State.
Holtzscher was already familiar with Musikgarten when she arrived in Bowling Green. For several years, she taught at the Montessori School.
Offering the classes through Studio Connection in 2013 seemed like a natural transition. At the time when more mothers were home during the day it helped keep the studio busy. That’s changed with more mothers working and fathers being more active in the classes.
As the studio grew, she needed to find larger spaces. In 2021 she moved into the current location, two storefronts, at 1039 Haskins Road.
The Studio Connection has 140 students and more than a dozen teachers who teach voice, piano, flute, violin, and occasionally brass.
Holtzscher reaches out to the community when she has an opening for a teacher. Several of them also teach part-time in local schools.
All work part-time.
Jackie Burns works four days a week both teaching voice and doing administrative work. Burns is a 2019 gradate of BGSU where she studied vocal music and human development.
Susan Holtzscher contacted her after seeing a Facebook post by Burns offering vocal and guitar lesson.
Burns said about half the studio’s students came up through Musikgarten. Parents “see the value in it at a young age,” she said.
This year six students “graduated” from The Studio Connection. Some advanced students work as teaching assistants in the Piano Express program
Holtzscher, married eight years ago, noted that she doesn’t have children of her own.
The students are her kids. “I love the personal interaction and seeing them succeed.”
