Meet Rachel Beard
Rachel Beard was brought up in Houston in a very musical family. With a father who was a concert pianist and a mother who was an opera singer, her parents were deeply devoted to their children's musical education and exposure. Regular attendance to symphonies and opera and ballet performances year after year had an enormous impact on her early years of musical foundation. Rachel began formal piano instruction at the age of six with a very gifted teacher who undoubtedly struggled to keep up with Rachel's insatiable appetite to learn more and play bigger pieces. By the age of nine, she had mastered Beethoven's Für Elise and several Clementi sonatinas, and quickly advanced to complex preludes and sonatas, such as (still one of her favorites) Beethoven's Pathetique. Before graduating high school, she proudly completed Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-Sharp Minor and performed it before her school in her senior piano recital.
In keeping with three generations of women in her family to teach piano, Rachel began teaching over a decade ago while making a life with her young family overseas. With over 20 years of classical piano training and instruction, Rachel believes in the beauty of music and its relationship to the human spirit. Further, she understands the well-rounded education of any person, young or old, goes beyond academia. The value of musical enrichment cannot be understated!