Adam's Music House

Adam’s Music House is pleased to announce the recipient of our 2019 Fellowship, Valerie Groh, who will study and present a lecture recital about the piano music of Max Reger in December, 2019.

The fellowship winner receives lessons with Artistic Director Dr. Anthony Tobin, guidance toward the presentation of the lecture recital, and $3000. During September 2019 we will sponsor a meet and greet where Valerie will discuss the project and perform!

Valerie Groh is a classically-trained pianist and teacher whose love affair with the piano began with her first lesson at age 7, and whose love of teaching was born more than 20-years ago when student teaching pre-college students at Vanderbilt University. 

A native Texan, Valerie was born in Spring, Texas but was raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas where she studied privately with a Russian piano teacher, Mrs. Tanya Ellezian.

She obtained a  Bachelor of Music degree in Musical Arts, with a concentration in Piano Pedagogy from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University  in 2000.  She spent one year of post-graduate study with Dr. Sandra Chucalo Turner, Chair of the Piano Department at Southern Seminary, taught piano and flute lessons for the Southern Seminary Academy of Music – now the Seminary School of the Arts, and helped manage the technology lab for a private piano studio in Louisville, Kentucky. She taught public school music and directed the honor choir at Northridge Middle School in Van Buren, Arkansas for two years before moving to Austin, Texas where she worked for the Austin Chamber Music Center and taught private and group piano lessons at Capital Music Center before branching out and establishing her own private studio, Valerie Groh’s Piano Garden.  Her studio consists of 33-students raging in age from 5 to 17.  Currently pursuing certification as a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM) through the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), Valerie is committed to her own professional development and is delighted to be studying privately with Dr. Anthony Tobin in hopes of improving as a performing pianist as well as a teacher.

Valerie is an active member of the following local, and National teaching organizations:

Austin District Music Teachers Association (ADMTA)

Texas Music Teachers Association (TMTA)

Music Teachers National Association (MTNA)

Texas Federation of Music Clubs (TFMC)

National Guild of Piano Teachers
Teacher Division of The American College of Musicians

Her students participate in informal and formal recitals during the year, take piano and theory exams offered by the Associate Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM), perform in National Piano GuildAuditions, National Federation of Music Clubs Festivals, and Austin District Music Teachers Association festivals and exams.

Piano playing and teaching is very important to Valerie, but her greatest roles in life are those of wife to Matthew Groh and homeschooling mom to James, age 8 and John, age 5.