Lessons in Your Home With Experienced and Friendly Teachers
Our Chicago based team members have brought together a selection of Chicago's best violin, viola, cello, guitar and piano teachers to bring great lessons right into your home. Our teachers are experienced with students of all ages and pride themselves on always being engaging, encouraging and fun in lessons. They are active performers throughout the Chicago area and hold degrees from Chicago's finest music schools, such as Roosevelt and Northwestern.
“We love my son’s piano teacher. He’s had 4 lessons so far and it couldn’t be better. Lessons at home are wonderful. Very well run company.”
Suzuki lessons are available for all instruments. Please let us know if you are interested in that when you contact us, or if you'd like to hear more about it. Our teachers are available for lessons all over the Chicago area, including Des Plaines, Orland Park, Schaumburg and Wheaton.
Lessons in your home offer many advantages for busy Chicago families. Aside from the obvious time saving benefit, young students feel comfortable in their surroundings, allowing them to connect with their teacher and instrument. Teachers can also assess the practice environment and make suggestions that can help your child's progress.
When you contact us to start lessons, we will work together to find a lesson time that consistently works for you and your teacher. Regular lessons are important to ensure your child makes excellent progress, and we want to set you up right from the beginning. We pride ourselves on offering the personal touch that all the best music lessons have. You can contact your teacher directly at any time, and we encourage you to do so, especially if there is a question about practice! Our team is always available to discuss your progress and loves to hear about how all our students are doing.
Our teachers at City Strings & Piano are renowned for their warm and welcoming demeanor, creating a friendly and supportive learning environment for all students. With genuine enthusiasm for music and a passion for teaching, they foster a positive and encouraging atmosphere that instills confidence and brings out the best in every student. Whether you're just starting your musical journey or looking to refine your skills, our friendly instructors will guide you with patience, understanding, and a genuine desire to see you succeed. Their approachable nature and dedication to your musical growth make learning a delightful and enriching experience at our school.
We look forward to hearing from you about you or your child’s musical goals. Click on the instrument lessons pages to learn more, scroll down to read news from our studio, meet our amazing team of teachers, and contact us to see how you can sign up!
Contact Us
Start your musical journey with lessons near you in Chicago. Reach out via form, email, or text. We'll discover your musical ambitions and connect you with an ideal teacher. Experience violin, viola, cello, guitar or piano lessons at your place.
Tuition for weekly lessons is $178, $258 or $338 per month for 30, 45 or 60 minute lessons. Additional time for longer lessons or lessons for siblings or parents is discounted 10%, reflected in the tuition amounts above.
Violin & Viola Teachers
Information on all of our wonderful violin and viola teachers can be found below. They each work with a variety of teaching methods and are available to teach students age 3 to adult. Let us know if you are interested in Suzuki lessons and we will connect you with a great Suzuki teacher. Read about all of our violin and viola teachers on the Chicago teachers page.
Willie McLellan is a violin, viola and piano teacher and a performer based in Chicago. His first experience playing a musical instrument was taking piano lessons at age 7 with a neighbor. Being eager to begin, he accidentally showed up a week early to his first lesson! A couple of years later he took up the violin in his school district’s orchestra program and was quickly hooked. Willie committed himself to learning the viola when his middle school string quartet had three violinists and a cello. Playing chamber music has been a great passion of his ever since.
Willie earned his BM in violin performance at UW-Madison studying with Felicia Moy and moved to Chicago for his MM in viola performance with Rami Solomonow at DePaul University. He was recently the viola teaching assistant to Tony Devroye at Northern Illinois University.
In Chicago, Willie was a regular violist with the Civic Orchestra. During his two year tenure he played in the MusiCorps String Quartet, which gave presentations at elementary schools and performed at park district locations. Other ensembles he has played with include the Illinois, Rockford, and Oistrakh symphonies. He maintains a private studio and also teaches group lessons in public schools. Willie studied the Suzuki method with Ed Kreitman and Rolando Freitag. Read more about Willie here.
Piano Teachers
Our piano teachers are experienced with a wide variety of students aged 3 through adults. They specialize in focusing students on successful practice and love to see their progress at our local recitals. You can read about all of our piano teachers on the Chicago teachers page.
Rebecca Song is a certified Suzuki piano teacher who taught both in Minneapolis and at Suzuki-Orff School for Young Musicians, now the Chicago Center for Music Education. She has experience teaching both traditionally and with the Suzuki Method for piano to students of all ages for the past 21 years. Rebecca earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Iowa Wesleyan College and a Master of Arts degree in Piano Pedagogy from Western Illinois University. In addition to teaching, Rebecca works as a board certified music therapist in an assisted living facility in Evanston, Illinois. Rebecca has worked with stroke victims, individuals with dementia/Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, in adult day services and has worked with disabled children throughout the Chicago Public Schools.
Cello Teachers
Meet our fantastic cello teachers! They love connecting with new students and watching them grow as young musicians. Contact us today to see how you can start cello lessons with City Strings & Piano. Read about all of our cello teachers on the Chicago teachers page.
Molly Rife began playing the cello at age 11. Growing up in a family full of musicians in Tucson, Arizona, it was no surprise that she developed a passion for music as a youngster. Molly decided to brave the cold and is now an active performer and teacher in Chicago. Molly holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Performance from Arizona State University where she studied with Thomas Landschoot. She received her Master of Music degree in Performance from DePaul University under the tutelage of Stephen Balderston.
Molly currently holds a position with the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra and plays frequently with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra and the New Philharmonic Orchestra. Molly is also a member of 42nd Parallel, a conductorless chamber orchestra founded by her colleagues in Chicago. An advocate of contemporary music, Molly has performed, recorded, and collaborated with many local Chicago composers and the contemporary ensemble Fonema Consort. Molly is enthusiastic about various genres of music and has performed and recorded with local Chicago bands and artists. You can read more about Molly here.
Student Achievements
(630) 447-9611 | 3634 W George St | Chicago, IL 60618