Donna Dawson

I have been seeing Donna Dawson weekly for classical piano lessons since Sept 2012 and I must say Donna is an absolutely fantastic piano teacher! She was a special find for me because I was looking for a superior teacher.
I originally began taking piano lessons when I was 8 years old (in 1989) up in Sacramento and I was classically trained for over 11 years before I stopped playing (because my long time piano teacher Judy Hughes died of cancer). I was incredibly lucky that my first piano teacher Judy was classically trained at The Julliard School of Music. The education I received from Judy was superior to any run of the mill rinky-​dink piano teacher you can typically find on Craigslist now.
After I stopped playing in 2000 I took a 12 year break from playing piano and I missed it a lot and I knew I wanted to start playing again. Unfortunately, essentially every piano teacher on Craigslist that I spoke to was far less advanced in theory and technique than I was and they were more accustomed to teaching children how to play chopsticks — basically the teachers on Craigslist who charge a cheap hourly rate do that because they don’t have a great working knowledge of piano theory and technique. I knew I wanted to find a teacher of superior quality like Judy was — I knew I needed a teacher who was trained at Julliard or equivalent.
After searching for weeks on Craigslist for a piano teacher and finding nothing but average college graduate students who had very little experience teaching piano, I decided I needed to look elsewhere. So I took my quest to Google, and I typed «San Diego’s best piano teacher», and the first result was Donna Dawson Piano Instruction website. It seems the San Diego Reader was quoted saying Donna was «San Diego’s Best Piano Teacher» and that’s why my Google search found her. I immediately clicked on her website
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I was so thrilled because Donna’s home page states in bold writing «Julliard Trained» and her biography included that she had been teaching since 1968! So she had YEARS of experience with a superior knowledge from Julliard! I knew I had found the teacher I wanted to work with! I called her and spoke with her and I was excited to hear that she preferred to work with students who had a previous working knowledge of the piano, and she seemed excited to hear I had taken 11 years of lessons from a Julliard trained instructor.
The last few months have been great! Every Tuesday night I meet with Donna for an hour at her home and everything I learned before is coming back with amazing speed thanks to her great instruction. I learn on her 7′ Steinway grand which is awesome — it is far more beautiful an instrument than my upright I practice on at home. Donna covers many facets of theory (even advanced theory for those who need it), timing, and the Vengerova technique. I feel like she is imparting her Julliard training on me and the plus of it all is I don’t have to get into Julliard to get the training nor do I have to pay the school’s super expensive tuition! :)
Now be aware — if you’re looking for cheaply priced «affordable» piano lessons because you want to learn how to play piano as a hobby, you might as well teach yourself off YouTube, because that’s the kind of education you’ll get if you look for a teacher based off price. Superior teachers cost more than your average teacher on Craigslist (Example: my first teacher Judy charged $ 40/​hour back in 2000 — this is how much advanced Julliard trained instructors charged 13 years ago). If you’re expecting to pay $ 30 – 40 an hour nowadays for piano lessons, you’re not going to find an advanced teacher. If you’re looking for an instructor that will teach you amazing technique, or if you’re an advanced student who needs a much more advanced teacher than you currently have, expect to pay closer to $ 60 – 75 per hour. You get what you pay for — simple as that.
So if you’re searching for a piano teacher who has a superior knowledge in theory, technique, timing, etc. and want only the best, I couldn’t recommend Donna Dawson more. Any other teacher in San Diego can’t compare — I’m 100% certain of this because I did my homework looking for an advanced teacher who could teach me more than I already knew after 11 years of private piano lessons from a Julliard trained teacher, and Donna is the only piano teacher I found that met the caliber of instruction that I needed to further my education.
Happy playing! :)