Piano lessons in Evergreen, Colorado
Private piano at Evergreen Conservatory of Music, rooted in the Russian Piano School, from first lessons to advanced work.
About Elena Keil
Founder of Evergreen Conservatory of Music. Her pedagogy, knowledge, and experience date from when she started playing piano at 4 years old, toured with Vesna Children's Choir across Europe, and earned her Master's degree at Gnessin's Russian Academy of Music.
Her pedagogical approach is rooted in the Russian Piano School. She had the privilege of personal encounters and professional proximity to titans of the twentieth century, including Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, and Evgeny Kissin. Equally formative were encounters with great artists who had emigrated and later returned to Russia, among them Vladimir Horowitz, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Galina Vishnevskaya.
A particularly meaningful chapter was the opportunity to produce a documentary and stand inside Heinrich Neuhaus's apartment in Moscow, seeing the piano on which Richter and so many other legendary pupils had studied. She also filmed and met the mother of Mikhail Pletnev — herself a pianist — and saw the room and instrument where so many of his formative works were practiced.
When she was four, her father — a legendary cameraman in Russia — brought her to the Moscow Conservatory Hall for a concert, and the world stopped spinning. She grew up on production sets, and in theaters and ballet houses. The Bolshoi and the Mariinsky were her theaters. Singing in Vesna Children's Choir opened the doors to major concert stages, alongside leading musicians and orchestras under conductors such as Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Yevgeny Svetlanov. Her greatest thankfulness is reserved for her piano teacher, Ludmila Alekseeva, who guided her through her college studies and whose influence continues to shape the way she teaches.
Students who have studied with Elena have attended top music programs and competitions. Today she translates these hard-won insights for a new generation, so the heritage of the greats remains a living force in the twenty-first century.
“When I was 3 years old, I pretended to play the piano on my kitchen table. I guess it was so convincing that my parents bought me a piano. Back then it was a huge investment to buy a piano — similar to buying a Steinway Grand Piano nowadays. At age 4, my father took me to the Moscow Conservatory Concert Hall for a concert, and the world stopped spinning for me. I became hooked on music and it became one of my life's greatest passions. Today, this experience is very important to me because it reminds me as a parent how important it is to pay close attention to little nuances and hints which my children give me to help me recognize their hidden talents, both artistic as well as others.” — Elena Keil
Proudly partnering with
