Reviews of professor Maria Spacagna

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Prof Spacagna uses her opera career as grounds for authority at CMU. However she is late to lessons, has students decide their own exercises, but belittles those she feels take their lessons more seriously than she does. She has the least success in sending students to prestigious graduate programs compared to the other two fuller CMU studios.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Respectfully, MS has no serious understanding of pedagogy. You will not learn a safe technique from her. She basically just chases after a "free sound" for 4 years; in practice, though, she creates an artificial, always open cord position and has you pass excess air. Sounds nice and big in short term, but leads to cord problems and early damage.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Respectfully, MS has no serious understanding of pedagogy. You will not learn a safe technique from her. She basically just chases after a "free sound" for 4 years; in practice, though, she teaches an artificial, always open cord position and has you pass excess air. Sounds nice and big in short term, but leads to cord problems and early damage.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Maria cares deeply about her students and will jump through hoops to help them. She is tough and will let you know if you are making the same mistakes but she is also extremely understanding and will pick you up when you're down. If you're not getting a concept she'll find new ways to explain it until it makes sense, she's helped me grow immensely!