About Teacher
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Haruko Haitani-Thomas M.M
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​ I was born and raised in Japan. My first music lessons was 3 years old. I still remember how much I enjoyed the lessons. My passion to playing the piano has never stopped as well as teaching piano. I began to teach piano when I was in conservatoire in Japan. I really wanted and still want to share my fun experience and knowledge of music to others. Since I started to teach piano, it's been almost for 30 years. I always have a huge passion and have been enjoying teaching students of all ages from 5 years old to adults and all levels. I maintained a private piano studio for 13 years and taught at the Yamaha music school for 9 years in Japan. I also taught piano at the Community Music Division at California State University, Sacramento for 3 years and at Pacific Institute of Music in Folsom for 10 years from 2009 to 2019 as well. I also gave piano lessons for The Gift of Play Program at Shriners Hospitals for Children. This experience was wonderful. I worked with students who did not have 10 fingers and I had never taught the type of students before. I was not nervous but I was more excited and had lots of idea to approach to them. Turned out, they could enjoy playing the piano and played very well. In 2019, I finally opened up my own piano studio at La Riviera neighborhood in Sacramento, California.
I am very experienced piano teacher. Many of my students has received honors at the Certificate of Merit. My students also got medals or a trophy at both Sierra Fall Festival and Baroque Music Festival. I try to give lessons the mixture of fun, but educated and productive. My goal of lessons are that beginner through advanced students will feel satisfaction and accomplishment.
I am a member of a number of professional organizations, including Music Teachers National Association(MTNA), Music Teachers’ Association of California(MTAC).
I am a graduate of Shobi University (Shobi College of Music)and Tokyo conservatory Diploma Course where I earned a Graduate Performance Diploma in piano performance. I also received her B.M. and M.M degrees in piano performance at Sacramento State of Music. During pursuing my degrees, I received numerous scholarships.
I am also a freelance accompanist at American River College. I was a member of the Camerata Capistrano Baroque ensemble group as a harpsichordist.
My primary teachers for piano were Midori Iwamoto (Siberius academy in Finland), David Stein (The Julliard School), Richard Cionco (The Julliard School) and Dr. Lorna Peters (Stony Brook) and Masami Mikai (Kunitachi)for composition.
