We are doing our first accepted student day soon. The head of the piano department said that they would not be assigning studios for a while, but that S could request a teacher after his visit. He also offered to give him a trial lesson.
There are 4 teachers at the school. Would it be asking too much to request a lesson with each of the teachers so he (and they) can make an informed choice? They were not able to narrow down the potential teachers and we have not been able to find much about them.
One strategy could be to use the head of the piano dept to help you navigate teacher choice. Are new students split equally amongst teachers? Does the school have grad students? How many studio spots are availble in each studio? And do certain teachers gravitate to certain styles? He will know this…but may not share all yet as I’m sure it’s a moving target. You may be able to drop a teacher or two from consideration bc that teacher works with primarily grad or upper class men…or a teacher’s studio might be pretty full next year already making it less likely you’ll end up there.
You could write your concerns plainly to the head (he’ll get it) and ask if you should meet all 4 teachers (even just to watch them at work) or what’s the best way forward. He may be direct or not…but still steer you. And I would definitely do a lesson with the head bc he’ll know the styles and personalities in the dept and can be a real advocate in the end.
Are any of them on rate my professor? Google their names and see what comes up. Check their background and special interests. That could help narrow it down. Meeting with all 4 seems over the top and it could just be confusing at the end. But if you could get down to 2 that may be more realistic.
Do the professors have recordings online? Your son could listen and decide who his two favorite performers are, then arrange trial lessons to pick his favorite teacher.