Expertise • Enthusiasm • Excellence

“As a parent, I appreciate Mia's gentle approach to teaching and her various training exercises. She has a classic approach to teaching yet is able to respond quickly and effectively with children — my daughter adored her. Since Mia moved away from our area, we recently started with a new teacher.  She has mentioned at every lesson how impressed she is with my daughter’s techniques and how grateful she is for my daughter’s first teacher.”
- mother of student age 8

Mia Tsai
Cello, Suzuki Cello; Piano, Suzuki Piano

Professionally active as pianist and cellist, and equally adept at both, Mia completed her BMus at Tainan University in Tainan, and her MMus (with honors) at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music, where she was also teaching assistant to Dr. Terry King. Her teachers and coaches include Chia-Min Chen, Po_Chun Lin, Terry King, Nicholas Tzavaras, Alexander Gebert and Yehuda Hanani. Mia has taught cello and piano in El Sistema programs at the Longy School of Bard College and La Casita Cultural Center in Syracuse. She also maintains a private teaching studio in Malden, and formerly in Taiwan.

Mia has performed professionally with many orchestras and ensembles including the Fu Dou Symphony in Taiwan (with which she also appeared as soloist), the Boston Opera Collaborative, and at summer festivals in Taiwan, the US and Germany. As pianist she has performed with violinist William Preucil, and as cellist with the Invoke and Glenside String Quartets. Mia is a recording artist for Syracuse University Records; her most recent project for the label featured her in several works of Shostakovich.

Meet Mia

1. How/what age did you start your instrument?
   I started piano at the age of five, and I started cello when I was ten.
2. Did you come from a musical family?
   No, but I was fortunate that my family has been supportive of my dream, and feel very lucky to have also found a musical family here in Boston.
3. Best or funniest (or even worst!) musical memory from childhood?
   The night before my first cello lesson, my parents showed me a video of a cellist playing cello, and I cried because I thought he looked just like a monkey!
4. A highlight or two from your performing career:
   (1) To play and record as pianist with Laura Bossert, Associate Professor of violin & viola at Syracuse University, for SU’s record label. (2) Performing the Mendelssohn Octet with the Invoke String Quartet, Concert Artist Guild 2019 Grand Prize winners.
5. What do you love about teaching?
   I like to work with people of all different ages and experience levels. Every lesson is a unique opportunity for a symbiotic connection both musically and personally.
6. What would you like your students to know about you?
   I am kind and compassionate and enjoy carving out individualized learning paths based on the goals of my students. Music, to me, is a unique language and it is my aim to help my students tell stories with their music.
7. Can you share a non-musical fun fact about you?
   I am good at cooking scrambled and poached eggs, and organizing and cataloging music and people’s closets.