Meet Catherine Grace Sunwood of Catherine Grace Miller Piano Studio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Catherine Grace Sunwood.

Catherine Grace, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
For as long as I can remember I have loved music and working with children. My parents signed me up for lessons at age 5 (after years of begging) with an amazing teacher named Dr. Ayala. Dr. Ayala taught me so much, far more than maybe she ever realized she did.

She taught me to love and appreciate music, but even more so she modeled for me how to build deep relationships with others. I learned quickly that her piano studio wasn’t just a place to improve my scales and sight-reading, but a safe place to express myself artistically, to ask for advice on everything outside of music, and to experience deep friendship through the growing pains of life. Because of her love and care for me and my family, when it came time to consider a job path the only thing that made sense was to pursue teaching piano.

When I began my undergraduate degree, my path narrowed even more. Through experiences growing up and in college, I became interested in teaching piano to children, teens and young adults with learning differences, anxiety, and ADHD. I began working to fill up my teaching tool box through student teaching, shadowing, volunteering, and eventually a masters degree to best be able to serve this particular population of learners.

For me, piano lessons are really a means to an end. While my hope for every student is for them to play well and enjoy music making, my primary goal is relational. How can I make the experience of piano lessons a positive one? How can I make my studio a safe place for creative expression? How can I best love and care for this uniquely made individual in front of me? All of these questions inform my teaching and take priority over more typical musical goals.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not! I always tell people if I knew what it would take to start a business ahead of time, I never would have done it!

Each phase of the business has had its own unique set of challenges. When I first started out, the main challenge was lack of experience. I spent the first year feeling like I had absolutely no idea what I was doing! My mindset during that time was say yes to everything–yes to every student, every job, and every opportunity that presented itself. I don’t know that operating that way was always helpful, and I definitely caused quite a few road bumps because of it, but I think overall it served me well as a new business owner.

After I made it through the first year, the biggest challenge was patience–waiting for my studio to grow, waiting for my teaching efforts to bear good fruit. I look back now with a much clearer perspective than I had in the moment and I realize that any new endeavor takes time. Not just days, weeks, months, but often years. In my case, it took about 3 years for things to grow to a point where I could finally step back and enjoy the fruits I had labored for.

These days, my main challenge is lack of time; this is the first year I’ve had a substantial waiting list of students (which is a fabulous problem to have), and I’ve realized I can no longer say yes to everything. Learning to say no, to more wisely consider the opportunities that arise has certainly been a challenge, but one I’m thankful to be experiencing at this stage.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I teach private piano lessons and specialize in working with children, teens and young adults with learning differences, ADHD, and anxiety. I have experience working in a variety of teaching environments and with students from ages 2-100.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I am not a natural risk taker, but I think risk taking is essential to running any kind of business. That being said, being risky is not something I have intentionally sought out; it’s usually something I’ve been forced to do based on external circumstances. As risk-averse as I am, the risks I’ve taken both in my professional and personal life have more often than not been the best and most rewarding decisions I’ve made.

Other than starting a business, the biggest career risks I’ve taken were in 2020 and 2021. In March of 2020, my business, like so many others, was directly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. I had to make a choice pretty quickly–either shut down completely, or adapt. I received a lot of really helpful advice from mentors and family members, and within a few days came up with a plan to move my studio completely online. Thankfully, the majority of my students were willing to take the risk with me and try something new. The choice to take a chance and change what I was doing challenged me immensely as a teacher and enabled me to expand my studio outside of just the area I was living in at the time, to different states and eventually internationally.

In the spring of 2021, I made the decision to move to Raleigh, NC from my hometown of Bethesda, MD. While I knew that the move was the right choice for me personally, I struggled with the decision for a long time because of what it meant for me professionally. I had spent 4 years pouring all of my time and energy into my business and students in Maryland and I was just finally seeing the fruit of that work. Moving meant starting over completely. When I announced that I would be moving at the end of the school year, I expected a few students to continue with me virtually (the ones not living locally), but assumed everyone else would seek in-person instruction. By God’s grace, over half of my students chose to continue with virtual lessons, providing me with work while I reestablished my studio in a new place.

The two lessons I’ve learned from risk taking are start small and be patient. Sometimes we need to be forced into taking big risks, but most of the time there are daily/weekly small risks we can take that help prepare us for the big ones. And when you take a risk, be patient. It’s rare that our decisions lead to immediate success. Take the risk and then be patient and stay faithful to your decision as you wait.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cgmpianostudio.com