Powell Ohio Music Store, Music Lessons, Instrument Rental
Piano Lessons
MUSIC ROYALE PIANO LESSONS
Piano is one of the most commonly played instruments in the world and learning the piano provides a great foundation for all other musical pursuits. People take piano lessons for many different reasons, some may want to study advanced classical music, some may want to learn jazz improvisation, while many others are beginners looking to improve their skills and have fun. With there being so many different styles of teaching and types of piano playing it is important that you find an instructor to fit your needs. At Music Royale we have more than ten piano instructors with a wide variety of backgrounds and music degrees. We have students studying classical, blues, jazz, pop and even music recording with Garageband. Our piano lessons are customized to help achieve the personal musical goals of each student. We believe that anyone with a passion for music should have an opportunity to play, including students with physical disabilities or special needs. Every student is unique and your lessons should be too.
At Music Royale, we offer many performance opportunities throughout the year for our students. We have recitals and informal performances, as well as open mic nights and our very popular Rock School class. Our rates are very competitive and all of our lessons are scheduled month to month, with no long term contracts to sign. Music Royale is an independent music store owned and operated by local, professional musicians. We are located just 3.5 miles north of 270 in Powell, Ohio at the intersection of Sawmill Parkway and Powell Road. We are just minutes from Columbus, Worthington, Dublin Lewis Center and Delaware and we have plenty of parking. Please check out the bios and videos of our piano instructors below.
Our lessons are customized to each student and we do our best to fit each student with the appropriate teacher. We believe this approach best serves our students and creates a fun and relaxed learning environment. Please contact us for teacher recommendations and available lesson times!
Instructors
Abbey Bechtol
Instruments Taught: Piano, Woodwinds, Bass, Clarinet, Alto Saxophone
Abbey Bechtol is a music instructor and composer with experience teaching piano, saxophone, bass guitar, and clarinet. Abbey strives to help students improve their technique and develop an understanding of music theory by analyzing the music they play. She believes it is important to foster an appreciation for music as an art form and the depth of emotion it can convey.
Aster Kanke
Instruments Taught: Piano, Strings, Violin
Music has always been Aster’s life passion, and they love to share and help cultivate that passion with their students in music lessons.
Caleb Hutslar
Instruments Taught: Piano
Caleb Hutslar, native of Worthington, Ohio, graduated from the Fort Hayes School of Music with the State Board of Education Award of Distinction for musical excellence, and obtained a Bachelor of Music degree from OSU in piano performance in 1993, under scholarship.
Carolyn Cline
Instruments Taught: Piano, Strings, Violin
David Swank
Instruments Taught: Piano
Dr. Evan Lynch
Instruments Taught: Piano, Woodwinds, Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone
Evan’s passion for music education drives him to teach clarinetists of all ages. Recent teaching experience includes a clarinet sabbatical replacement at The Ohio State University, and he is currently also teaching clarinet at Otterbein University. He has taught clarinet sectionals for many high school and middle school wind ensembles and band camps throughout Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio. He is also frequently requested to adjudicate high school solo and ensemble festivals, regional orchestra auditions, and honor band auditions.
Dr. Gaby Valladares
Instruments Taught: Piano, Woodwinds, Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone
Dr. Gaby Valladares is a native of Santa Clarita, California. After earning her Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from the University of California, Santa Barbara, she made her way to Ohio, where she has established herself as a clarinetist and teacher around the city of Columbus.
Jackson Neesley
Instruments Taught: Guitar, Piano
Jackson began his teaching career for guitar and piano in 2014 at various studios around the Columbus area. Jackson studied under multiple guitar instructors, including Andrew Hartman at Music Royale.
Kelly McLennan
Instruments Taught: Piano, Voice
Originally from Defiance, Ohio, Kelly McLennan holds a Bachelor of Arts – music education degree from Bowling Green State University. She has been professionally singing for 30+ years.
Megan Wetzel
Instruments Taught: Piano, Strings, Violin, Viola
Classically trained and musically motivated, Megan teaches complete musicianship techniques applicable to classical, pop, rock, hip hop, R&B, fiddling, and improvisation.
Nick Labita
Instruments Taught: Piano
Nick studied jazz piano at Capital University under the late and great Mark Flugge and graduated with a B.M. in Music Industry/Media. He is currently the bass and keyboard player for the Dirty Money Live Karaoke Band.
Paul Baker
Instruments Taught: Guitar, Piano, Strings, Ukulele, Bass, Double Bass
Primarily a bassist, Paul graduated from Otterbein University in Spring 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Music – Jazz Studies Concentration.
Phil Smith
Instruments Taught: Guitar, Piano, Ukulele, Bass
Race Lerma
Instruments Taught: Guitar, Piano, Strings, Ukulele, Bass, Banjo, Violin
Race Lerma has been playing violin since the age of four and has grown up in the string music scene of Northwest Ohio. His background and training include 12 years of private instruction from various teachers in Fostoria and Findlay, OH., 2 years of private lessons at Ohio Northern University under Professor Sunny Zank, And the past 4 years at Capital University’s Conservatory of Music studying violin performance and music business, as well as two years of parallel training in piano. Race has been teaching private lessons in Findlay and Columbus off and on for the past 6 years.
Rob Cave
Instruments Taught: Piano
Rob Cave has been playing classical piano since the age of four, and studied piano performance under Juilliard graduate W. Eugene Hudson at Jacksonville University.
Scott Gorsuch
Instruments Taught: Guitar, Piano, Drums, Ukulele, Bass, Sound Engineering
Scott has been playing guitar for over 40 years. A bit of a mad scientist– he also builds his own guitars and amps, has a background in pipe organ building, and is a recording engineer at Musicol Recording Studio.
Sydney McSweeney
Instruments Taught: Piano, Voice
Thane Leshner
Instruments Taught: Guitar, Piano, Voice, Ukulele, Bass
Thane Leshner is a Columbus-born guitarist and vocalist who began playing in 2005. He graduated from Capital University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Music where he participated in choir and the school rock ensemble.
Troy Kunkler
Instruments Taught: Piano, Drums
Troy began playing percussion in middle school band. He went on to study music at Ohio University, where he studied classical percussion with Roger Braun and Joseph VanHassel and drum set with Guy Remonko.
