Sonya Eichler feels “very, very good” about her decision to volunteer as a piano teacher at the Joy of Music School, and we can assure her the feeling is mutual.

“I’m up there in years,” says Sonya, who is 85 and began teaching at the School about a decade ago. “It gives me something to do. It makes me feel like I have something to offer.”

Sonya taught a bit of piano at home when her children were young. But she notices a big difference between those days and now. “I was not in love with teaching back then,” she recalls. “It was somewhat fun, but not fun like the Joy of Music School. Now I feel I follow my own instincts as a teacher. I’m not working for money, I’m working for sheer joy of the activity. It’s very liberating!”

She cherishes the tight friendships she’s built with her Joy of Music School students—and none more than with Alyssa, her piano student for the past four years. “I’m so proud of her. She’s extremely bright and very musical. Just a wonderful person.”

Sonya and Alyssa’s family have become close friends, too. Sonya doesn’t drive any longer, so Alyssa’s family brings her to the School and back for lessons on Monday afternoons. They’ve been known to bring Sonya homemade vegetable soup for dinner, and when she returned from Boston recently, Alyssa was waiting for her at the airport with a bouquet of flowers.

“I adore all of them,” Sonya says of the family. “They’re simply warmhearted, kind, considerate, loving people.”

 

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