She’s been playing piano since she was eight years old. She never stopped.

Angela Michael grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, where a teacher named Mrs. Jacobson first put her hands on the keys. Music became the thread that ran through everything: college studies in piano performance, performing Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Gonzaga University Symphony Orchestra, and a lifelong love of making music.

The path to the piano studio took a detour through television news.

Before the studio, there was a newsroom.

Angela spent 15 years in television news as a producer and assignment editor, finishing at KOMO-4 News in Seattle. When she left to be home with her kids, she started volunteering at a local school and discovered she loved working with children just as much as she loved music.

When a neighbor asked if she’d teach her daughter piano, everything fell into place.

She didn’t just start teaching. She learned how to teach.

Before taking on students, Angela completed a year of college pedagogy coursework. She’s been studying and refining her approach ever since, regularly attending conferences and specialized courses. Today she holds a National Certification in Music Teaching through the Music Teachers National Association and is an active member of the Edmonds Music Teachers Association.

Her teaching philosophy

Angela believes every person has the ability to make music. Her job isn’t to sort out the talented from the untalented. It’s to meet each student where they are and help them find their own relationship with the piano.

19 years later, the studio is full of students who love music.

Angela teaches children as young as five and adults at any level. What keeps her going is that moment when something clicks and a student starts thinking of themselves as a musician. Every student who sits beside her matters. She’s in it for the long haul.

Outside the studio you’ll find her hiking, climbing mountains, and on rainy days, practicing the piano herself.