Cindy Rose

Teaches: Piano

Cindy began teaching at The Music Center in 2012. Her teaching philosophy includes meeting students where they are skill-wise and strengthening their musical foundation. Cindy’s goal is to instill a passion for music in her students and encourage them to bring beauty into the world through their playing. Preparing students for performances — and helping them put it all together for the victory of a good performance is extremely satisfying for her. Cindy began playing the piano at age five with her grandmother as her first teacher. This initial spark ignited her lifelong love of the piano, for which Cindy is forever grateful. She has continued to share her talents through the years with the community as a church pianist at Cornerstone Community Church in Battle Creek — and previously as an accompanist for the Kalamazoo Children’s Chorus Treble Choir. Like many other professional musicians, nerves were a hurdle Cindy worked to overcome. Today, she conquers feelings of performance anxiety by remembering Teddy Roosevelt’s quote: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” Similarly, she reminds her students that doing their best is beautiful and helps them grow and bring joy to others. Cindy holds a Bachelor of Science from Michigan State University and has done graduate work in linguistics at the University of Texas. She has also studied piano with Winnifred Sherburn at Michigan State University and Dr. William Phemister at Wheaton College. One of her most memorable experiences was living and working in China for eight years. Here, she had the opportunity to absorb an entirely different culture and gain new musical perspectives. Cindy is married to her husband of 31 years, and together they have three children. Her “other” career is working as a professional engineer.