Piano Key in Seekonk All About the Students

Melissa Grossi, Greg and Kristen Ivy Moses started the Piano Key Music School in Seekonk close to four years ago, and they said it’s been quite the ride.

The school specializes in piano and voice lessons for students of any age, and the group said they love the work.

Grossi said she first started when she was four years old on the organ.

“My whole life it was kind of engrained in me,” she said. “My father said if you practice really hard you’ll have a store right here in the plaza and I did. It really started to become huge and important to me when I started branching out to piano. I started singing and playing the saxophone as well and it really hit home there.”

Greg Moses, also a teacher at the school, was originally a student of Grossi’s.

“I was probably in my late teens when I decided I wanted to do music professionally,” he said. “I had always enjoyed playing the piano.”

Grossi said working with one of her students has been really fun.

“He was one of my first students,” she said. “He took lessons until he went to college. We actually both graduated from Rhode Island College with music as a major.”

The group said getting the right atmosphere for teaching is definitely important for their students. They said they want everyone to make sure this is the place for them before they put in their first payment.

“We always give a complimentary first lesson,” said Kristen Moses. “It gives students a change to see the studio and meet their teacher and make sure they’re comfortable here.”

Kristen Moses said she manages the day-to-day aspect of the business as the administrator. She said it gets hectic sometimes, but the group agreed when recital time comes around it’s a great time.

“We have a recital space downstairs and we do several small recitals a year and a large recital once a year at a rented location,” she said. “Locally we’ll do the Music Mansion and we did Carnegie Hall in New York last December.”

Grossi said their big annual recitals take them all over the country.

“We performed at Disney World in 2001,” she said. “Every once in a while, we’ll do something crazy like that.”

Grossi said they have about 120 students and they participate in the Royal Conservatory of Music program. She said one of their younger students, Meghan is getting ready for that.

“She started 10 months ago, one of her friends was taking lessons here,” Grossi said. “She loves playing, it’s kind of an obsession. She’s preparing for the next level at the RCM and is playing in the Steinway Competition this year in Boston.”

The group said they teach classical styles as well as contemporary music. Kristen Moses said it’s always important to teach both the classics and new music.

“We do what it takes to get the kids engaged,” she said. “We have music books for everything from Super Mario to Taylor Swift.”

Grossi said they also have a music tech lab where kids who don’t have a piano at home can come in and practice. She said it’s good for music composition because the kids can program in 16 other tracks to create a complete song.

The Piano Key is located at 445 Taunton Ave. and is open by appointment.