Miss Rong Lucchesi has been teaching piano for 28 years. Before coming to the US, she studied music for 16 years in her native country of China. While in China, she performed regularly at the US Embassy in Beijing and taught piano at the China Conservatory of Music for six years where she also studied and earned her B.A. in both Music Composition and Piano Performance. She was the pianist for many performances and recordings with the Sound of Spring Chamber Orchestra. Following her undergraduate studies, Miss Rong worked for the Beijing Dance Academy as a dance accompanist while she prepared for graduate studies in the US. Rong went on to study piano performance with Dr. James Winn at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she earned a M.A. in Piano Performance in 2003. While at UNR, Rong received a graduate teaching assistantship to teach piano to undergraduate students as well as accompany singers and instrumentalists. Rong was also a recipient of a graduate music scholarship and Nevada Opera scholarship. In addition to numerous recitals, some of Rong's performances include "Trial by Jury", "Sour Agelica" and "Magic Flute" with Nevada Opera and "Carnival of Animals" at the Lake Tahoe Music Festival. After graduation, Rong recorded and published a collection of Chinese classical piano solo pieces and performed them at Nightingale Concert Hall at the University of Nevada, Reno.
In 2002, Rong began her piano studio to teach youth and adult students of all levels. Rong has been an active member of the Music Teachers National Association and the Northern Nevada Music Teachers Association and her students have attended many competitions and festivals including NNMTA Youth Piano Festival, Silver State Piano Competition, Reno Philharmonic Concerto Competition, MTNA Competition, Steinway Piano Competition, Reno Tahoe Piano Competition, and the Reno Rotary Club Music Contest.
In addition to teaching piano, Rong works as a professional dance accompanist where she plays for Royal Academy of Dance exams for Pre-Primary through Advanced 2.
Rong's teaching philosophy is that students must build a solid foundation of both technique and musicianship. To achieve this, it requires the cooperation of the student, the teacher and the parents. Parental involvement in lessons and practice sessions is crucial for making efficient progress. Additionally, attending events such as recitals, festivals and competitions are necessary for student growth. Playing piano in front of an audience is always different from practicing by yourself. Practicing for a performance helps students set goals and performing in front of an audience builds confidence.
Rong has recently moved to North Phoenix and joined PMTA and ASMTA and is now accepting students from age 5 and up.
Endorsements:
Lena
I started learning piano at 41 years old. Rong was the one who lead me to the wonderful piano world. I still remembered that one piano teacher at the same studio surprised my progression and asked me whether I practiced 4-5 hours a today. I had to say it was because I had a wonderful mentor and teacher, Rong. Rong is knowledgeable and her skills are exceptional. Her sight-reading capability is extremely outstanding and I was told by a local musician that Rong was the best sight reader in Reno. Rong always provides me an excellent demo version for a music piece I love and chose and her demo is always inspiring so I have more motivation to learn from her as an adult student. Her music theory is phenomenal and she also helped me my original song compositions and/or accompaniment. She is not only an outstanding pianist, but also the most thoughtful and careful teacher. She has her own teaching tips to help me overcome some difficulties. I have been very grateful for Rong for my growth in music world. She is simply the best piano teacher for both adults and children.
Best Regards,
Lena
Phoebe Yan
As a Mother of two children, I strongly believe that music positively influences self-esteem, communication skills, stress management, and creativity for their entire life. Lucky, I have had the pleasure of having Mrs. Fan as my children’s piano teacher for 16 years.
Mrs. Fan is a driven, organized piano teacher. She also requests the students to focus on the details. Based on each student’s strengths, she creates an engaging learning environment, develops the lesson plans, evolves required study material and resources for the reference of the patients, helps the students in understanding their mistakes and correcting them. As a parent, I can feel my children’s progress day by day.
Be a student of Mrs. Fan, my daughter performed a sole piano concert at “Steinway Piano Gallery” in Artown festival 2016 with a huge success. My son donated $1000 to the Rotary District 5190 right after he got the first-place competition in 2019.
Mrs. Fan is a qualified and certified to teach piano. I highly recommend you choose Mrs. Fan as a piano teacher for your child (children).
Sincerely
Fannie Zhang
Max Yang
Casper Jeffery
Mrs. Lucchesi was my piano teacher for about thirteen years. When I first started, I hated practicing, played poorly, and had almost no musical sense. But over the years, with perseverance and practice, I grew to enjoy practicing, learned better technique, and gained some musical intuition. While practicing basic exercises can still be a somewhat boring task, working on new pieces or brushing up on old ones is a great way to express myself, pass time, or sometimes even just to de-stress. Mrs. Lucchesi was a vital part of my musical journey. She taught me better techniques, spotted and helped correct my mistakes, and guided me to understand the feeling of the music as I gradually learned to do so myself. With her help, I learned to play a variety of pieces, classical, modern, and even eastern. I'm sure she has much more to teach her new students.