Published: November 25, 2009 07:51 am      

At 88, she still teaches the piano

TRAVERSE CITY -- Retirement, who needs it?

Rose Megregian of Elk Rapids is 88 and still going strong, teaching piano to 30 young children weekly at a Traverse City studio. Her gentle manner is coupled with exacting standards and a thorough knowledge of both music and young minds, all combining to spark a lifelong love of music in her students.

Offering lessons four afternoons a week at the Tinkertunes Music Studios in Logan's Landing, Megregian also tutors private students at her home. Starting with kids from scratch, teaching them the basics from notes to keys to how to sit at the piano, over and over again, year after year, is just part of the process.

Megregian loves kids and sharing with them her love of the piano, guiding them through the years as they learn and master new skills.

"They're really rewarding to be with, children are just precious," said Megregian, who also works with students through high school age. "It makes my life. You go there and you're into the teaching and all perked up and when the children are done I say, 'Gee I wish I had more.'"

"I love them and it keeps me going," she added.

After teaching for 30 years downstate in Dearborn, Megregian gave it up when she and her husband retired up north. After he died 12 years ago, she needed to do something with her life and thought about teaching again. With trepidation but determined to try, she approached Tom Kaufmann, owner of Tinkertunes, by chance knocking on his door

"I was just brave enough to do it, I don't know how," Megregian recalled. "I said, 'I'm a piano teacher, I want to get back into it.' He set me up, he really did, I have to give Tom all the credit for getting me going again."

Adding nearly a dozen years to her resume in this latest teaching iteration, Megregian is a "grandma" working with piano students two and three generations younger. The connection between student and teacher thrives, whether because of or despite the age difference.

Kaufmann has no doubt his "phenomenal" and "sweetheart" of a teacher is the bottom line.

"One mom told me that even if her kid wasn't taking piano lessons, she'd bring her kid down to hang with Rose," he said.

Tanya Svoboda of Traverse City concurs. Her daughter, Amelia, 6, has studied with "Miss Rose" weekly for about a year.

"She just has the perfect disposition, friendly and kind," Svoboda said. "She's really special, like a grandma."

Megregian graduated as a piano major from the Detroit Institute of Musical Arts, part of the University of Detroit, and joined the school's faculty. She also completed and is certified to teach the Kelly Kirby Method, an approach she has used for beginning students throughout her teaching career.

"It's basically ear training and then they read music, get the notation and all the other basics," said Megregian of the four-book course that takes a year or two to complete. "The kids like it because it's like a workbook almost, every time there's something new they work on, something that they can color or cut out."

As for learning the piano herself, Megregian is not really sure how she got started. Her Armenian family fled to the United States from Turkey after World War I, when she was 18 months old. She learned English when she started kindergarten in Detroit, where her family settled and her father found work at Ford Motor Company.

"How (my mother) managed to get a piano when we had no car, no telephone," wondered Megregian of the old upright she learned to play on, often while her mother sang along.