DETAILS

The mission of Music for Me PGH is to provide individualized music instruction by facilitating in-home lessons for budding musicians with different abilities to nurture a fuller life and equip them with skills missed in regular music education. The vision is to revolutionize the music industry by growing a community of inclusive, high-quality, and working musicians. Lessons are currently offered for stringed instruments, voice, and exploratory music lessons. Adaptations are configured before and during lessons with tools and techniques used to cater to the needs of each student. Beginning violin at the age of 9, music/string educator, Shundeena Beard, won various young artist competitions in Pittsburgh, traveled globally to perform, and participated in radio and TV broadcast shows. While obtaining her degree in string performance at Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, she led fundraising efforts and outreach programs for elementary schools in the Baltimore City region. Her work led her back to Pittsburgh, PA where she became the strings instructor for a local charter school in 2014, facilitating positive change through the lives of her many students and colleagues. Ms. Beard transitioned into program management at various community non-profits while finishing her second bachelor’s in business management. Inspired by her work building adaptive music classes and her own experiences with her brother who has Sturge-Webber Syndrome, Ms. Beard now focuses on music-making with individuals with different abilities as the founding member of her studio company called Music for Me PGH. Through this, she provides the space, awareness, and care needed to embolden passionate and budding musicians who are other-abled.