Adult Studies
In addition to individual instruction on all instruments, PCM has a vibrant and growing slate of group classes, ensembles, and music history and appreciation offerings for adults.
- Individual Instruction
- Group Lessons & Ensembles
- Music History & Appreciation
Click on individual departments below or call the PCM office at 626.683.3355 for more information.
Ensemble Offerings
Fall Quarter: August 26 – November 18, 2024
Winter Quarter: November 19, 2024 – March 2, 2025
Spring Quarter: March 3 – June 2, 2025
Chamber Music
Thursdays: 6:00 – 7:30 pm
Instructor: Erika Walczak and Simone Vitucci
For adults new to string instruments, this class will focus on fundamentals: tone production, intonation, reading and playing in an ensemble setting.
Thursdays: 4:30 – 6:00 pm
Instructor: Erika Walczak and Simone Vitucci
Students acquire ensemble chops while learning just enough about music theory, history, ear training, and healthy practice habits to support their development as a whole musician.
Wednesdays 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Instructor: Barbara Mullens Geier
Students in the adult flute ensemble will have the opportunity to sight read, develop better listening skills, improve rhythmic accuracy, and learn and perform ensemble repertoire.
Please contact the office to enroll: music@pasadenaconservatory.org or 626-683-3355.
Wednesdays: 7:15 – 8:45 pm
Instructor: Dr. Bryan Fasola
The Adult Guitar Ensemble gives guitarists the rare but exciting opportunity to play orchestral repertoire on the classical guitar in a group setting. Rehearsals are fun but focused on preparing for a public concert at the end of each semester. All guitarists with some music reading abilities are welcome to join with minimum audition requirements. Meetings are weekly and led by a conductor.
Please contact the office to enroll: music@pasadenaconservatory.org or 626-683-3355.
Jazz Combos
Mondays: 2:00 – 3:30 pm
Wednesdays: 7:30 – 9:00 pm
Saturdays: 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Instructor: Sherry Luchette
Students learn to play jazz and blues standards in an ensemble setting. Through guided listening, students learn about melody, arrangements, chords, scales, and jazz improvisation.
Please contact the office to enroll: music@pasadenaconservatory.org or 626-683-3355.
Recorder
Thursdays: 9:30 – 11:00 am
Instructor: Rachael Denny
Students play soprano, alto, and tenor recorders in small consorts, with an emphasis on individual musicianship within the ensemble. Students explore music written and arranged for the recorder, from early music of the Renaissance and Baroque to contemporary arrangements of popular music.
Voice
Thursdays: 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Instructors: Dr. Joshua Tan
Glee Club members have fun while learning about proper vocal health, choir etiquette, and how to read music through the study of solfège and ear training.
The club ventures through various genres of choral repertoire including classical, contemporary, jazz, and musical theater.
World Music
Tuesdays: 6:00 – 7:30 pm
Instructor: Noel Ayala- Loera
Mariachi Pasadena! students learn to play and sing mariachi standards in an ensemble setting. This includes learning songs and instrumental tunes from all over Mexico and Latin America. Adult and youth ages 12+.
Fall History Courses
September 13 – November 15, 2024
Fridays: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Instructor: Dr. Oliver Greene
Tuition: $320
Festivals, concerts, and recordings have served as artistic mediums to promote pop, rock, rhythm n’ blues, funk, folk, jazz and other styles of music for many decades. From the late 1960s through the 1980s these mediums of expression provided popular musicians opportunities to communicate beliefs they shared with other Americans on the Vietnam war, civil rights and racial injustices, famines, genocides, oppression, sexual identity and freedom, gender issues, and cultural recognition. This was a time when musicians openly protested the wrong-doings and inequalities of society without fear of retribution from record labels, politicians, or influential corporations.
This course is a chronological overview of ten of the most influential music events in American history. These include the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals, Monterey International Pop Festival, Woodstock, Harlem Cultural Festival (Black Woodstock), Altamont Free Concert, Atlanta International Pop Festival, Concert for Bangladesh, Wattstax Concert, Live Aid Concerts and the “We Are the World” recording, and the Farm Aid Concert for America.
September 9 – October 28, 2024
Mondays: 9:30 – 11:00 am
Instructor: Dr. Vatche Mankerian
Tuition: $192
It was the insatiably curious genius, Liszt, who, by aspiring to tell stories through instrumental music, sans paroles, came up with the concept of the Symphonic Poem, both for orchestra and the piano.
This course focuses on works for orchestra which are not symphonies but are (or not) Symphonic Poems, works such as, Liszt’s Les preludes, Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Debussy’s La Mer, Strauss’ Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Sibelius’ Lemminkäinen Suite, Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Respighi’s Roman Trilogy, and Holst’s The Planets, among countless others, which have become and remain audience favorites.
Winter History Courses
January 10 – March 14, 2025
Fridays: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Instructor: Dr. Oliver Greene
Tuition: $320
This course examines music as a response to suffering and celebration. It explores popular music in the Americas during WWI, WWII, and the Vietnam War, and as social commentary in the carnivals of Trinidad, Brazil, and New Orleans. Music, as a response to war, changed tremendously between WWI and the Vietnam War. Although carnival was banned during WWI and WWII, songs written about these events often commented on the life of GIs abroad, e.g. “Rum and Coca Cola” by Lord Invader (Trinidad) and later the Andrew Sisters. In the years surrounding WWI, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith expressed the joys and struggles of white and black Americans. Between the 1920s – 1960s samba evolved in Brazil, carnaval rose in popularity, and bossa nova was introduced to the world. While swing bands leaders like Ellington, Shaw, and Goodman and vocalists like Fitzgerald and Sinatra helped Americans forget the challenges of war, Caribbean calypso grew in popularity throughout the region. From the 1950s – 70s, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, and Marvin Gaye used their voices to protest the Vietnam War while Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, and others from New Orleans made significant contributions to popular music.
January 14 – March 18, 2025
Tuesdays: 9:00 – 11:00 am
Instructor: Sarkis Baltaian
Tuition: $320
This class takes a journey through the major piano works by 20th-century Eastern European composers from Poland, Czechia, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Russia/Soviet Union. Representative works will include compositions by Karol Szymanowski, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Leopold Godowsky, Leoš Janáček, Béla Bartók, Pancho Vladigerov, Sergei Taneyev, Anatoly Lyadov, Alexander Scriabin, Igor Stravinsky, Nikolai Medtner, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitry Kabalevsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Nikolai Kapustin, among others.
January 14 – March 18, 2025
Mondays: 9:30 – 11:00 am
Instructor: Vatché Mankerian
Tuition: $144
In the preface of his monumental three-volume work Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage), Franz Liszt wrote: “Having recently travelled to many new countries, through different settings and places consecrated by history and poetry; having felt that the phenomena of nature and their attendant sights did not pass before my eyes as pointless images but stirred deep emotions in my soul…”The course will present solo piano works which are based on settings, places, works of literature and art that certainly stir emotions in the soul.
Theory Courses
August 27 – November 12, 2024
Tuesdays: 2:15 – 3:15 pm
Instructor: Renee Gilormini
Tuition: $180
Using Royal Conservatory curriculum, students refresh their knowledge and expand their horizons through sequenced instruction in music theory. This course is for beginners through intermediate singers and players.
Materials: Royal Conservatory theory book required*
August 27 – November 12, 2024
Tuesdays: 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Instructor: Renee Gilormini
Tuition: $180
Using Royal Conservatory curriculum, students continue to expand their horizons through sequenced instruction in music theory. This course is for intermediate singers and players who have completed Intro to Music Theory.
Materials: Royal Conservatory theory book required*
August 26 – November 18, 2024
Mondays: 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Instructor: Sherry Luchette
Tuition:$180
The adult studies jazz theory class is for beginning to intermediate ability levels. This class will include ear training drills on music intervals, triads and 7th chords. Students will study from lesson topics from Shelly Berg’s Book “Essentials of Jazz Theory”, including various scales, chord patterns, and soloing exercises that can be directly applied to jazz standards. Students will bring their instruments (pianos provided) and will be given weekly assignments to practice that are in line with their experience level and abilities.
*Materials can be purchased in the front office or at various online retailers.
Student Voices
Julia Langer
When I retired, I moved to Pasadena and my son said, “Mom, if you would learn to play the cello, we could have a string quartet!” My three granddaughters were taking violin and viola lessons at PCM, so I was already impressed with the quality of PCM’s programming and instructors. In December 2012, I began cello lessons. While studying music has its own intrinsic rewards, my cello studies have opened up a whole new arena of student experiences to share with my granddaughters. I strive to be a good “music student” model for them; and they, in turn, become my teachers from time to time. I have also discovered that one is never too old to begin a completely new challenge.
Ralph Miles
I think PCM is an organization that Pasadena needs. It makes a difference. I love my weekly piano lessons and want to help make sure the Conservatory can serve our community well into the future.
Eric Chadwick
Cello has been the next chapter of music for me, having focused mostly on vocal studies in my high school and college years. While I decided to learn cello for my own development and enjoyment, the highlight has been sharing in my son’s journey in learning the cello at the same time. He has studied from a young age, but now we often practice and learn together. We have both advanced to the point where we can enjoy cello duets and trios with our instructor, in addition to our solo repertoire.