Welcome to the Piano Project at The University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music!

Piano Project is a program designed for children ages 6–12. The program’s core mission is to build a healthy, sturdy pianistic foundation to cultivate a lifelong relationship with the instrument and music. We provide an education that instils a solid understanding of both music and the piano, one that allows for tension-free playing, and an education which develops a child’s imagination and, most importantly, their love of music.

Our students all meet on Tuesdays between 5 and 7pm for two different class sessions. Each lesson is 25 minutes long. Students receive both an individual piano lesson and a group theory lesson.

Individual piano lessons are taught one-on-one by undergraduate and graduate piano pedagogy students from the Butler School.  All of our teachers undergo intensive pedagogical training and are enrolled in our piano pedagogy course. The group theory class reinforces the concepts taught in individual lessons and introduces more complex concepts of music theory. These group classes are taught by the Piano Project Coordinator. Both classes are closely supervised and monitored by Dr. Margarita Denenburg, the associate professor of practice in piano pedagogy and the director of the Piano Project.

Piano Project offers two tracks of study, the Mozart track and the Chopin track. For those who opt for the Mozart track, students will receive one individual piano lesson and one group theory lesson per week, on a Tuesday, as outlined above. For those interested in the Chopin track, students will still receive the individual piano lesson and group theory class on a Tuesday just like the Mozart track; however, in addition, one more 25 minute piano lesson will be offered on a different day of the week to be decided upon by the parents and teacher. 

Each semester the Piano Project culminates in the Piano Project Recital where every student is afforded the opportunity to play in front of an audience, on a concert grand Steinway and Sons piano, in the Butler School’s Recital Studio. The Piano Project also offers a special recital, the Honors Recital, which is a collaboration between the String Project and the Piano Project. Admission to perform in this recital is selective and determined by a video application which is submitted by the students near the end of the Fall Semester. This joint recital takes place in Bates Recital Hall early in the Spring semester.