About the Academy
The Joe Ferrante Music Academy was founded 7 years ago as a private music training program when Joe Ferrante was a freshman at the University of Southern California as a composition for film and TV major. Beginning with only a few students who took lessons in the Ferrante home in Monrovia, the academy soon grew to 70 students. Voice, guitar and violin were added, and it soon was necessary to obtain a larger space with more instructors who could teach a variety of musical instruments. In 2003 the Joe Ferrante Music Academy made its debut on Colorado Blvd. in Monrovia. Continuing to grow, they soon added a second location on the same street to accomodate more demand for private training, which now also included tutoring in language arts and math. Currently, the Joe Ferrante Music Academy has 300 students and 20 teachers providing the utmost quality of private music lessons, math and language arts tutoring.
Each lesson is taught under the oversight and philosophy of Joe Ferrante, a graduate of USC in Music Theory & Composition with an emphasis in Scoring for Motion Picture and Television. Joe has studied piano extensively in New York and France with Jeaneane Dowis-Lipman of The Juliard School, and at MannesCollege in Manhattan. Recently, Joe has recorded andconducted 7 of his original film scores at Paramount Pictures with medium and large symphony orchestras. Whether it be music, language arts or math, the philosophy of the academy is the same: "We want quality training at an affordable price."
Music and Science
Researchers probing the inner workings of the brain have found neutral firing patterns that bear a remarkable resemblance to music - suggesting that music may hold the key to higher brain function. Other scientists are finding similar results. For example, a recent study at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, demonstrated that grade school children who took piano lessons for three years scored higher that their peers on tests of general and spatial cognitive development - the very faculties needed for performance in math, engineering and other pursuits. Studies at Michigan State and UC Irvine have found similar results.