Clarissa Neydavoud discovered her love for playing the piano at age four growing up in Munich, Germany while taking piano lessons from Lola Poirier, a former pupil of the famous concert pianist Alfred Cortot. After moving with her family to New York at fifteen, she continued her piano studies with Philip Evans, a professor at the Manhattan School of Music and guest teacher at Juilliard. Upon graduating High School, she received a special merit scholarship to study piano performance (with a minor in child pedagogy) with Eugene Liszt, Carnegie-Mellon University's most coveted piano teacher. Clarissa was the only freshman chosen for this honor. 

 

Upon graduating, Clarissa immediately embarked on starting her piano studio, with her greatest wish being to share her love and passion for music with others. She ended up marrying and relocating to Los Angeles at the age of twenty-four and has been teaching there ever since.

 

Her teaching has inspired hundreds of students, young and old, from every social and economic background, to open their hearts to all genres of music, with Classical Music as the main focus. She has a desire to awaken a hunger for music in every person who seeks out her guidance, in addition, to instilling a love for music in her students that will last forever.  Her students typically stay with her from the earliest age, at around five or six, until they graduate and move away to college, and even beyond! Her unique teaching style not only allows her students to progress rapidly and play any pieces they desire in record time but to also enjoy their musical journey immensely. Due to her engagement with each student and care for his or her needs, she has created lifelong bonds and friendships with many of them, several of whom are now adults and are doctors, lawyers, wall street traders, business owners, piano teachers, music therapists, with the list going on and on. Many of them even received scholarship opportunities through their proficiency in piano at their universities, even though they chose to pursue non-music-related fields.

 

Clarissa's greatest wish is to one day open a performing arts center in Los Angeles that will nurture all performing arts under one roof:  all musical instruments, voice, dance, acting and musical theater.  She has seen and experienced the benefits of allowing a child to discover his or her inner talents and blossom through tapping into their creative side and becoming the person they were meant to be: confident, happy, and successful in whatever field they choose.