Blog

Begin Your Journey as a Musician

GET STARTED

In just a few days, Sept 6th to be exact, my university students (all piano majors) will converge on UBC for a new year of study, practice and goals to attain. The latter, of course, is my ultimate concern and that they pass their end-of-year exams with flying colors. The lesson to be learned is […]

The constant tapping and counting of a teacher in a music lesson seems to be a constant and never-ending tedium. How many music teachers have I heard say, “I sound like a broken record: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 during every lesson! Why can’t students just learn to count themselves?!” The answer my […]

Success of young students, no matter the discipline, is built on a solid foundation. Information is distributed to the student in a classroom/private lesson format and then reinforced with continued study outside of that class or lesson. In the case of music, which presents a vast array of high-level concepts combined with an intense demand […]

Watch and listen to some of NWMA’s outstanding students in our 2016 Holiday Recital. Visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel to see other performances from this and other recitals and get automatic updates on new videos posted as they become available. Such amazing talent deserves to be heard! Happy listening!! To find our YouTube […]

The Academy is pleased to congratulate Markus Pawlik’s students, Amy Cai and Jason Hale, on qualifying for the Berkeley Junior Bach Festival. The Festival will be March 17-26, 2017.

Markus Pawlik’s student, Jessica Phongsa won a 1st prize in the US Open Music Competition.

Markus Pawlik’s student, Eric Guo, received Panel Honors. He has been invited to perform at the MTAC Convention in Santa Clara, June 30 – July 4, 2017.

On Saturday, May 13th, New World Music Academy will be holding their Spring Recital. The recital is from 11:00-2:00. In addition, to the recital we will also have an Open House from 12:00-3:00. Please join us for music, fun and information about our academy.

NWMA welcomes hornist and music professional and educator Sadie Glass to our faculty! Sadie holds a Masters in Horn Performance and Literature from Urbana-Champaign (2013) and performs widely throughout Northern California. She is a also an early music specialist and performs on Baroque horn (natural horn) in early music festivals and concerts. She has experience […]

Beginning Piano! for ages 4 and up – Weekly July 10 through August 7 – 9am to 12pm Piano Improvisation for ages 10 and up – with Grammy Nominated jazz/blues pianist John R Burr String Ensemble with Cecilia Huang Piano Ensemble with Amelita Gutierrez Certificate of Merit Musicianship Class with Amelita Gutierrez (includes music theory, […]

Attention all 4th – 8th graders! New World Music Academy presents The Science of Sound The Science of Sound is designed for children in 4th through 8th grades who are interested in science, music, and composition. It is created and run by Sadie Glass (MMus, BMusHons – Urbana-Champagne, Ill.). The class promises to ignite and […]

NWMA is proud to offer new videos of some of our soloists and chamber ensembles from our 2017 Spring Recital. Visit https://youtu.be/TbeKiVJnhKQ to view and enjoy!

NWMA owner and executive director Mark Anderson is shown here in a short video produced by Nimbus Records (UK) recording part of a suite of pieces by German/Dutch composer Julius Röntgen. https://youtu.be/Bn8gxZSZfU4 Mark Anderson’s recordings of solo piano works by Julius Röntgen are available online at www.Amazon.com and iTunes. Enjoy.

New World Music Academy will be holding their winter recital on Saturday, December 16th! The recital starts at 10:30 and will be held at the Resurrection Lutheran Church in Dublin, 7557 Amador Valley Blvd. Our students have been preparing for this big day for several months. Please join us in supporting the students as they […]

The Röntgen Piano Trio (Mark Anderson – piano, Antoine van Dongen – violin, and Eric Gaenslen, cello) perform works by Beethoven, Julius Röntgen and Brahms this coming Saturday, December 9th at 8pm at Trinity Chamber Concerts (Trinity Chapel) – 2320 Dana St, Berkeley, CA 94704. Tickets and information can be found at http://www.trinitychamberconcerts.com

Here is an excerpt from a concert that took place at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada on October 20th, 2017. Mark Anderson performs Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A Major Op.81 with the Borealis String Quartet. New World Music Academy’s mission is to prepare our students for a life-time of music-making. Working with […]

Our Holiday Recital was fantastic yesterday with so many people to congratulate! Parents, teachers and students all work together to create artistic experiences, as witnessed in these two students performing the first movement of Beethoven’s last sonata for violin and piano in G Major, Op.96. This sort of peer-collaboration between students is the driving force […]

NWMA is proud to announce the addition of saxophonist Joshua Marshall to our faculty. Joshua holds a Masters degree in performance from Mills College and performs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area with a variety of ensembles. His own compositions are infused with heavy doses of improvisation as is his collaborative work with ensembles such […]

Watch this short interview with NWMA violin and chamber music director Rebecca Wishnia done for SFgovTV and their Women At Work series. We’re very proud to have Rebecca on the NWMA team! Meet violinist and violin teacher, Rebecca Wishnia, a local San Franciscan raised by cellists. Rebecca shares her experiences as a musician and teacher […]

New World Music Academy would like to congratulate Markus Pawlik’s piano students who recently completed their 2018 Certificate of Merit program. Receiving Branch Honors in the Certificate of Merit Evaluations are: Abrianna Zhang Audrey Xi Chelsea Zhou Ella Min In the 2018 USOMC Competition: Hanna Chen 1. Prize Jessica Phongsa 2nd Prize Ella Min 3rd […]

Come enjoy an afternoon of music provided by our talented students. When: May 12, 2018 starting at 10:30am Where: Resurrection Lutheran Church 7557 Amador Valley Blvd. Dublin, CA 94568 We look forward to seeing you there!

To those who have launched them, the first performance of a chamber music program feels like a testing-ground for all the hard-work, preparation, administrative (read: schedule) juggling, and tireless practicing, in addition to all the efforts by parents, teachers and administrators to make it all come together. Well, today it can be said that those […]

NWMA extends hearty congratulations to the following students of Ms. Kiki for outstanding exam results for 2018 ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) testing: Anish Reddy Kolan – Grade 5 – Mark 95 (with Distinction) Brandon Hughes Lu – Grade 5 – Mark 85 (with Merit) Pranav Palagummi – Grade 5 – […]

New for the 2018-19 Academic Year To all of our current students and families as well as those who are visiting our site in search of the right destination for learning music for themselves or their children, NWMA has recently made changes to our policies and tuition structure for the 2018-19 academic year. Please visit […]

NWMA Owner and Executive Director Mark Anderson discusses new releases for August on Nimbus Records. The 37 minute podcast was recorded at Wyastone Leys – home of Nimbus Records – in the UK when Mark was there to record his fourth CD of Röntgen’s solo piano music this past June.

We are pleased to announce the second season of our chamber music program, Sound Arts! Bringing artists and students together to perform chamber masterworks Explore exciting music Grow musicality Improve rhythm Learn communication skills Gain confidence Make friends with other musicians In this semester-long course, designed for intermediate and advanced students, young musicians will be […]

Music lessons are not just another activity. While this short essay is not an attempt to bash team or solo sports, chess club, math tutoring, or any other after-school (extra-curricular) program that parents subscribe to for their kids, it is designed to remind and enlighten NWMA families as to what exactly music lessons mean. Research […]

NEUROSCIENTISTS HAVE DEMONSTRATED that learning to play an instrument or sing leads to changes in a child’s brain that make it more likely they will reach their full cognitive and academic potential. This may be why learning to play an instrument can be fun, but also difficult! There is significant merit to the idea that […]

Congratulations to Daniel Mah, student of Markus Pawlik, for winning the Livermore Symphony Competition – a competition that Academy founder and director Mark Anderson won twice as a youth growing up in Pleasanton! As a winner Daniel will perform the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 on February 23, 2018 with the Livermore Symphony.

Artur Schnabel was one of the most important and influential musicians of the first half of the 20th century! The documentary film by our Artistic Director Markus Pawlik about the legendary pianist and modernist composer Artur Schnabel is now playing on Amazon. “Artur Schnabel: No Place of Exile” https://www.amazon.com/Artur-Schnabel-No-Place-Exile/dp/B07GVSD3ST

NWMA Executive Director Mark Anderson has a new CD about to be released on Nimbus Records – the fourth in a series of recordings devoted to the solo piano of the German-born Dutch composer Julius Röntgen. The CD is available for pre-order on Amazon.com

Below is from an interview with NWMA Executive Director and Owner, Mark Anderson, that appeared in the Hacienda News, a locally circulated newsletter that circulates throughout the Hacienda Business Park. This interview appeared late in 2018. New World Music Academy Offers a Quality Music Education By Hacienda Pulse Staff Writer New World Music Academy is […]