Current Position

Director, Franconia Fine Arts, LLC (Piano Instruction)

 

Professional and Music Experience:

 

Since 2010, Lisa Thomas has had a thriving, full-time piano studio, Franconia Fine Arts, of Alexandria, Virginia.  The students range in age from 5 to 75, early beginner through advanced.  Her primary goal is to nurture the spirit and talent of each student, and foster a lifetime of music enjoyment. She teaches classical, jazz, contemporary, or a mixture of all those genres. 

 

Whether a student wants to play for personal enjoyment, perform before an audience, do college auditions, or participate in festivals and competitions, Lisa is ready to assist them.

Her students who desire to participate in festivals and examinations always perform in an exemplary fashion. They receive Superior ratings in piano solo, concerto, and music theory events at the Springfield Music Club Jazz Festival, Spring Festival, and Sonata/Sonatina Festival.  They have also performed with distinction in the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) exams and National Guild of Piano Teachers' auditions.  Studio alumni include a graduate from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and young musicians studying with esteemed professors at the university level.

 

Since 1997, she has served as a church pianist/keyboardist at various churches in Northern Virginia.

 

From 2010 through 2015, she was the music teacher at Christian Center School in Alexandria, Virginia.

 

On short-term mission trips to Haiti from 2015 to 2018, she taught general music, recorder classes and music theory classes to schools and the youth orchestra near Gressier, Haiti.

Organizations

President:  Springfield Music Club, 2017-2021, 2025-

Member:  Music Teachers National Association, Virginia Music Teachers Association, Northern Virginia Music Teachers Association, Springfield Music Club, National Guild of Piano Teachers

 

Mentors and Distinguished Teachers

Mr. Narciso Solero, M.M.A., Indiana University, Past-President of the Virginia Music Teachers Association
Mrs. LaVera Murray, M.M.A., Peabody Conservatory
Dr, Ina Mirtcheva Blevins, D.M.A., George Mason University

Dr. Nancy Davis Matricardi, D.M.A., Instructor at the Suzuki Institute of America and Past President of the Northern Virginia Music Teachers Association.

Dr. Eunice Stackhouse, D.M.A., University of Kansas, and Past-Professor of Piano and Music Theory at Montreat College in North Carolina.

 

Education

Bachelor of Science, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis Maryland

 

Continuing Education

George Mason University, Fairfax, VA