I note that no reviews have been posted on Ms. Marcus since the Covid pandemic has come and gone,…read moreso I feel compelled to comment.
Ms Marcus seems like a very competent piano teacher, but in my opinion she is possessed by an almost Howard Hughes-like irrational paranoia over Covid "germs." Following her demands, I wore a normal mask during my first two sessions with her (more than a year after the CDC advice that this was no longer necessary, but not wanting to cause a fight), but on the third time I saw her, she was in a tizzy because she had just heard an NPR story about the dangers of "long Covid." She now demanded that I wear an N95 mask, which she had a supply of. And when that was too small for my face (the straps kept snapping off my ears), she hauled out some kind of medical mask that covered my entire face from eyes to chin, with straps around the back of my head, and insisted that I wear it. I told her that I found it very unpleasant, not to mention interfering with my concentration on the music I was trying to play. At that point she dismissed me and said she no longer wanted me as a student.
So I suggest that potential students form their own opinions about this kind of policy. Ms Marcus explicitly rejects the advice of the CDC and other public health agencies, and demands mask-wearing, even in these times when stadia, arenas, and concert venues are packed with people sitting literally inches from one another, and when NO authorities consider such close contact dangerous. She believes that merely two people, sitting several feet apart in a room, pose a dangerous health threat to one another, and insists that her students wear extremely tight-fitting masks, even when this interferes with their concentration when trying to play the piano (obviously, if this is the only time they have to wear them in normal society.)
Frankly, I think Ms Marcus is a health crank, and has a scientifically unjustified attitude about whatever threats there are in these days since the CDC has declared the pandemic over. Her insistence on masking requires that her students play along with her hypochondriac attitude. She may be a fine teacher for submissive children who follow her masking demands, but I think that most adults who take the advice of the public health authorities will find that her very extreme attitudes interfere with their piano-playing experience. I spent weeks trying to prepare for meeting with her only to be rejected because I simply follow the recommendations of the public health authorities. Accordingly, despite her obvious skills as a piano teacher, I can't recommend her.
