About
Rosey Piano School is the realization of Brette Irish’s 13 years of experience in music education. Our school is based upon the idea that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to teaching. We value the differences in how students learn best and aim to present music through a lens that is most meaningful to each musician—no matter the genre. All learning types and abilities are celebrated.
Brette Irish started playing piano as a young child after her grandpa gifted her his piano. She is classically trained in both piano and voice with over 24 years of focused study. Brette received her bachelors degree in vocal performance from Western Oregon University and her masters degree in musicology from Portland State University. At WOU she did independent research on early childhood music pedagogy. Her masters thesis was on Claude Debussy’s WWI piano compositions.
With years of experience working at large music schools (Guitar Center Studios, Bach to Rock, and Portland School of Music and Dance), Brette is excited to own her own business where students are provided with individualized instruction. While at PSU she completed a manual on how to read musical notation with an emphasis on utilizing working and long-term memory pathways in the most efficient way possible. She continues to study the Orff Schulwerk and Kodály pedagogies, and has taken a lot of inspiration from Intelligent Music Teaching: Essays on the Core Principles of Effective Instruction by Robert Duke.
Brette has also been actively involved in the local Portland music scene since she was a teenager, playing shows at venues like Mississippi Studios and Doug Fir Lounge. Her music has been covered by nationally recognized publications such as Stereogum, and has received local coverage in Willamette Week, The Portland Mercury, and OPB. Brette served as a record label intern at Tender Loving Empire and was the music curator for Art Market PDX.
In her spare time she enjoys her many house plants, cooking, the NYT crossword, and spending time with her loved ones.
Private Study CV
Classical Piano
Irena Ivanitsky
Connie Titterington
Classical + Vernacular Voice
Megan Sand
Dr. Kevin Helppie
Dr. Jan Nelson
Conducting
Dr. Bruce Mayhall
Pedagogy
Dr. Susan Chan
Dr. Ike Nail
Connie Titterington
Introducing Miss Mara
Mara (Miss Mara) knows the power of early music exposure first hand—she can remember listening to the violin on “Fiddler on the Roof” cassette tapes in her childhood car at age six and thinking “I want to do that!” Early lessons on violin led to a desire to explore as many instruments as she could. Through high school she studied the French Horn, mellophone and trumpet; through private lessons and self study she gained skills in guitar, ukulele and piano. Her most valuable life experience came from marching the trumpet across the country with the Mandarins Drum and Bugle Corps in 2014, where she learned the true value of dedication. Not only was she involved in music growing up, but she took part in many other art forms, including theater, dance and art.
Mara has been teaching private and group piano lessons as well as early childhood music classes for the past two years. She works with students aged three to adult. Previous to teaching music, Maraworked as a camp counselor and teacher’s assistant in a Montessori school. She is a big proponent of using active engagement, movement and imagination to teach music. She makes sure to tailor the classes to the individual pacing needs of each student.
Outside of teaching music, Mara loves to read, play with her fluff of a cat and enjoy the sunshine.