Testimonials
Kristan Levy
We have always felt lucky to have called Moira first. She is the most uplifting and supportive teacher, and has become very special to our family over the last few years. My daughter describes her as a patient and funny teacher who challengers and supports her, and helps her work towards her personal violin and school orchestra-related violin goals. We highly recommend Moira to any family and know you will love her too!
Annie Tittle
Ms. Moira is a fantastic fiddle teacher! She has wonderful insight and patience for energetic young children. Our daughter loves her time in lessons because of Ms. Moira's fun personality, which makes practicing at home exciting as well. Playing at open sessions with Ms. Moira is one of our daughter's favorite activities. We're so grateful for Ms. Moira's time and clever teaching methods!
Adria Patel
Moira is a knowledgeable and experienced professional who also inspires her students to explore themselves and their musical talents. Moira has a kind warm demeanor and always put my son first, asks him which direction he wants to pursue and what type of music he’s interested in learning and playing. She is highly student focused. She inspires his to play his very best by playing from his heart. She helps him explore different types of music and is extremely knowledgeable academically, always educating him areas of history, genre, positioning, style and so much more.
Anjali Brannon
Moira is a gifted musician and teacher. She has a wonderful way of working with children that feels like playing to them and tailors the lesson to the individual, so it keeps them interested to learn and grow with their instrument. We’re grateful for her lovely violin lessons and presence.
“Moira Levant is a very special person. This is particularly evident to me when observing her passion for teaching violin/fiddle. Moira is a highly trained musician, an exceptional teacher and a talented composer. What makes her so special is that she is not only extraordinarily talented, but she is also compassionate and empathetic. Whether Moira is teaching a young child (as young as three) or a senior (at least one of her students is almost seventy), she is able to direct her teaching to the specific learning style and temperament of each individual student. Moira’s approach to teaching helps ensure that her students develop and maintain a true love of the instrument and for the music. After just over a year of lessons with Moira, I can start to feel the incredible joy that the intricate dance of my fingers on the fingerboard, my bow on the strings, and the intertwining pattern of the two, creates. Playing fiddle has become my happy place, and Moira has had a lot to do with that!”
-Sarah G.
Anonymous Mother of a Teenager Student.
"From the beginning, we have been impressed with not only Moira's technical ability, but her person-ability and flexibility as well. She met our Ottilia where she was and went from there- not requiring a set curriculum from the outset, but getting to know Ottilia and where her interests and abilities lie. Moira is helping Ottilia to develop into the musician SHE can and wants to be. Necessary fundamentals are duly taught, but we love how the focus is not there. The focus is USING those necessary fundamentals to develop not only Ottilia's skills, but her creativity and comfort in her own chosen style!"
Sylvia Gleason
As an adult learner, I am so glad I found Moira. Her flexible and creative teaching techniques have really improved my playing. She encourages me to explore music and styles that interest and engage me rather than strictly following a standard set of violin method books. Her individualized approach has allowed me to progress rapidly. I have received a lot of positive feedback from other people on how my playing has improved since I started taking lessons from her. I highly recommend her.
Erica Mersfelder
I want to share with you a little bit about my son’s violin teacher, Moira Levant. First, my son has severe ADHD, struggles with reading music, but has nearly perfect pitch with his ears. He has been taking violin in the Irish fiddle style from Moira for 2 1/2 years. She believes in a Montessori approach and has found ways to use my son’s strengths to help him excel in music. He would never have fit into a traditional style lesson. He would have struggled and would not have enjoyed it. She is patient, kind, and truly knows how to use a child’s strengths to foster a love of music.
Testimonial for Moira
by Parker Buckley
I first became aware of Moira around 2018 while regularly listening to the Irish music sessions at the Dublin Pub. At the time, I was practicing to get my mandolin playing to an acceptable level to try joining them. I am now playing regularly in sessions with Moira and others at the Fifth St Brewpub in Dayton. It was clear back in 2018 and it’s clear now, that Moira makes a huge contribution to our Irish sessions. Besides her wonderful fiddle playing, she’s just fun to be with. Within the last couple of years, I decided to learn to play the Anglo concertina, again working my way up to being able to play in Irish sessions. When first bringing the concertina to our sessions, I found it challenging to follow the other instruments while concentrating on my own playing. I asked Moira for a lesson just to focus on that issue. She came to our home for the lesson and started off with “Just play something.” (Her repertoire is huge, and she can quickly catch on to most any tune). We played a few tunes together, and when she observed me having trouble staying synched with her fiddle, she switched to playing “drones” or greatly simplifying her playing, to allow me to sort myself out again. This really helped. I’m not sure other instructors would have intuitively made that switch on the fly like that. By the end of the lesson, I was having a really good time and feeling like things were coming together for me. I’ll always be a student, but I’m gaining more confidence with the concertina in sessions now. Since getting to know Moira, I’ve learned more about her passion for teaching, and especially for teaching young students. Her eyes just sparkle when she talks about progress with a four-year-old student. Four years old! This 74-year-old is really impressed. I look forward to many more Irish music sessions with Moira.
Testimonial about transcribing hand written music into typeset music using Finale music writing program.
Dr. Gwen Brubaker
As a person who likes to write music but still uses a pencil and lots of staff paper, I know that a good transcriber is an absolute necessity---especially if you want other people to be able to read and perhaps perform your music. Moira Levant is such a person. She has transformed several of my handwritten manuscripts into clear, easy-to-read copies. She pays attention to every little detail, gets things done on time, and perhaps best of all, has really reasonable rates. In addition, Moira is a very knowledgeable musician and is great fun to talk with.
Dr. B.
Kathryn Kosey
I started Suzuki violin with Moira in fourth grade in 1997 and I still play to this day. My siblings have also taken lessons from her; one sister also continues to play violin into adulthood. Although I stopped my own lessons many years ago, Moira has become a great friend from whom I can still learn while playing along beside her. Moira makes sure students learn more than just what is in a book, no matter the age, as she teaches children and adults. All students have the chance to learn from a visiting musician from the local area at each group lesson. For the older students, she invites them to participate in various community events in the area (for example, the Fair at New Boston reenactment in Springfield and the weekly open celtic sessions throughout Dayton). Students are encouraged to try multiple genres - both in classical violin and in fiddle - as well as to try multiple ways of learning a song (for instance: written music, by ear one-on-one, by ear in a group). Her approach to go beyond the book ensures that instead of just focusing on the next major performance, her students really learn to bring violin and music into their lives.
Amanda Peter
When I first met Moira, I had only been playing for a few years, and after several bad experiences, I was almost ready to quit violin altogether. Moira showed me that there was a different way to learn violin. Rather than pushing me towards classical music that was beyond my experience and comfort level (as others had), she let me have a say in what I was learning, giving me the options of other types of music and other ways to learn it. And she made it fun, both to learn and to play. Through her teaching, I was introduced to Irish fiddle, and I fell in love with music, and the violin, again. She has been an incredible teacher. She adapts her style of teaching to what works best for her students, and she truly cares and wants them to enjoy learning to play.
Chris Lynch Wiley
Moira helped me so much as an adult learner.
Hannah Preiser
The passion and care that goes into teaching and helping students to understand both the music and the instrument shows that Moria is truly a teacher who seeks to share her craft rather than simply teach.
Jeff Kreidenweis
Moira was hired by my wife and I to provide violin lessons to our then 8yr old son. She has been a relevant presence in his development as a musician ever since. Our son is now a professional vocalist and he was honored to perform with the Dayton Philharmonic an original composition written by Moira Levant. Moira is a clever teacher and a fine musician in her own right. I recommend her without reservation.