Missy has been making music ever since she can remember.
Her favorite thing to do as a child was not play
with dolls or run around with the other kids....Missy loved to sing.
She would sit on a swing and sing; she would sing while doing chores;
she would even sing at the dinner table (her parents had to make a “no
singing at the table” rule).
Missy started playing piano at age 6 and has
enjoyed it ever since. (Although, she admits, her parents used bribery
for practice incentive when she was young). She began playing and
singing in church at age 12 and picked up guitar in her high-school
years with which she played traditional old-time music with a bluegrass
band. Choir also played a very important role in Missy’s high school
experience.
She spent a lot of time making music with her
family, in the form of car sing-alongs, living-room jam
sessions, special music for church, and impromptu kitchen dance
sessions with her brother.
Missy began teaching piano at age 14 when the
parents of the kids she was babysitting began asking for lessons for
their kids. Although she enjoyed her high school piano-teaching job,
she realized she
needed more education. Missy attended Portland State University to
study pedagogy with Mary Kogen.
Bev Conway, Instructor
Bev Conway loved
music from
“before the Land of
Time.”Coming from a large music-loving
family meant she had to wait her turn to start piano lessons, but she
was
composing her own very emotional music compositions at a very young age.Once lessons started, she was on her way and
hasn’t stopped since!Though she
enrolled to sing in various choirs, she always ended up at the piano,
accompanying jazz ensembles, girls’ and boys’ choruses, etc.Education was her major in college but she
started teaching piano students in the neighborhood and took piano
pedagogy
through Art Publication Society, a satellite of St. Louis Music
Conservatory
while she was taking college courses.
Playing the piano was natural
for her role as a pastor’s wife
and teaching piano was a great fit while she was raising her two
children. She taught classroom music at
two private
Christian schools, developing children’s music curriculum in
conjunction with
public school music curricula.Music has
always brought out the creative passions in Bev:passion
to
create
fun learning games, passion
to create tools for all learning styles and learning disabilities, and
passion
to connect relational warmth and a positive learning environment for
her
students.
After graduating with a
BA in Music, she began
working part-time in the nursery at a drug and alcohol treatment
center, where she was able to see the amazing effects music can have on
children – even those as young as newborns! She became certified as a
Kindermusik teacher in order to learn more about how to incorporate
music into the lives of very young children.
Currently, Missy is
enjoying being a mom to her
two sons, Birch, born in November, 2005 and Riddley, born July 2008.
She also teaches piano,
Kindermusik, and performs. In her spare time Missy enjoys
reading, traveling, and spending time with her husband, Joe, and her
boys.
Though she always was
intrigued by Kindermusik, with a full piano studio plus classroom
teaching,
there didn’t ever seem to be time to add it to her life.Then, when her children were out of the nest,
she had the wonderful opportunity to train as a Kindermusik educator.It combined everything she loved -children, music and the creative arts – into
one happy venue.
Now,
she enjoys taking her own grandchild to music classes
and teaching piano for the City of Portland’s community centers.Besides music, she enjoys scrapbooking her
four beautiful grandchildren and playing golf with her husband, Steve.
