Testimonials

“Before taking lessons from Gia, I wasn’t very motivated to practice and get better at flute. I wasn’t pushing myself to learn challenging pieces or a new technique. I was staying in the same spot, practicing the same things over and over. When I started taking lessons from Gia, my whole musical journey was turned around. I was being encouraged to play challenging pieces, learn more complex techniques like double tonguing, and to play more confidently. Something I really struggled with was being extremely nervous when performing, and Gia taught me how to overcome those nerves and gave me different exercises to do before performing. With those exercises, I became more confident when walking out onto stage and my nerves were no longer affecting my playing.

Studying with Gia, she recommended and assigned various method and exercise books to work on tone and technique. She also assigned different flute literature to help me become a well-rounded flute player. Gia also let me choose pieces that I wanted to play, but ones that were challenging for me, so they allowed me to learn new techniques and further develop my tone. I studied with Gia for two years, and throughout those two years, my tone had matured and grown more than it had before. My technique had improved tremendously from the exercises and pieces she had me play, and my confidence now soared. From day one, Gia always believed in me and cheered me on. She always encouraged me to keep going and keep working because she knew I could do it.

Gia is an amazing teacher and flute player, as well as a wonderful person. She is so kind, caring, and generous. Gia is so welcoming and encouraging and so eager to teach. I loved being her student. Gia made me want to practice and grow as a flute player and be excited about learning new pieces. She made me want to challenge myself because she always believed in me and pushed me to be the best I can be. Gia made me love flute more than I already did and I am so grateful for everything that she taught me. Anyone would be so incredibly lucky to have Gia as their teacher.”

-Ashley Snow

“I very much enjoyed my beginning years playing the flute, and upon starting lessons with Mrs. Sastre, they only became more enjoyable. Something I was often reminded of was how personalized the interactions were both in the real world and musically. I have always found that to be a comforting reassurance. Mrs. Sastre picked up on how most effectively to communicate with me even before I knew how best I learned! As I write this from a college music student’s perspective, I am able to recognize the value I got from just listening back to her play; the tone speaks for itself. I sound poetic, however, I have always admired how quickly she was able to harness my particular way of picking up new information. Mrs. Sastre is an expert teacher, and I say that with the most sincerity I can muster. She reminded me of what I was learning in band for years, but drew out the more relevant meanings as they pertained to my individuality as a player and introduced different exercises that forced a more challenging approach to what previously had been somewhat surface-level flute literacy. I cannot genuinely thank her enough.”

-Mary Moshos