At Charlotte Academy of Music, 10 years old (with occasional exceptions) is the youngest age that we start children in private voice lessons. Younger students are encouraged to develop their voices and music skills in the Charlotte Academy Children’s Choir, and piano lessons.

Charlotte Academy of Music encourages parents to arrange an appointment with the Academy Director, Regina Ziliani, to determine the “best fit” in regards to a voice teacher. In this regard, a music school is a far superior choice as there is more than one instructor to choose from. We strongly believe that a good student-teacher match is the key to a successful music lesson experience.

The Academy is proud to be the home of the Charlotte Glee Club. This ensemble, under the direction of Alexandra Sims, performs throughout the Charlotte area and in an annual show choir competition. Auditions are held in August and December.

Absolutely! Many of our adult students wish to sing in their church choirs, others audition for local community theatre, while some simply want to sing for their own enjoyment. No matter the motivation, studying music as an adult is a most rewarding endeavor.

Academy students have a variety of concert and evaluation opportunities throughout the year. Two formal recitals are held in the winter and spring, and bi-monthly informal concerts in our Blue Note Lounge. In addition, our voice faculty encourages participation in the NFMC Music Festival which valuable feedback on voice students’ musical progress.

Research shows that piano students are better equipped to comprehend mathematical and scientific concepts. A group of preschoolers received private piano keyboard lessons and singing lessons. A second group received private computer lessons. Those children who received piano/keyboard training performed 34% higher on tests measuring spatial-temporal ability than the others — even those who received computer training. “Spatial-temporal” is basically proportional reasoning — ratios, fractions, proportions and thinking in space and time. This concept has long been considered a major obstacle in the teaching of elementary math and science.

Source: Neurological Research, February 28, 1997

Music majors are the most likely group of college grads to be admitted to medical school. Physician and biologist Lewis Thomas studied the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants. He found that 66% of music majors who applied to med school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group. For comparison, (44%) of biochemistry majors were admitted. Also, a study of 7,500 university students revealed that music majors scored the highest reading scores among all majors including English, biology, chemistry and math.

Sources: “The Comparative Academic Abilities of Students in Education and in Other Areas of a Multi-focus University”, Peter H. Wood, ERIC Document No. ED327480, “The Case for Music in the Schools”, Phi Delta Kappan, February, 1994

High school music students score higher on SATs in both verbal and math than their peers. In 2001, SAT takers with coursework/experience in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 41 points higher on the math portion than students with no coursework/experience in the arts.

Source: Profile of SAT and Achievement Test Takers, The College Board, compiled by Music Educators National Conference, 2001