About Josefa Cabiedes

Where she trained

Josefa holds a Master’s degree in Music from the Universidad de las Artes (ISA) in Havana, Cuba’s national arts university. That is a conservatory education: years of daily technique, theory, ear training and performance, under teachers who do not let anything slide.

It matters for a reason that is easy to miss. A teacher trained that way can hear what is actually wrong. When a student’s hand keeps collapsing, or a singer keeps running out of air halfway through a phrase, she is not guessing at the cause.

Forty five years of teaching

She has been teaching since the 1970s, which is long enough to have taught children who are now adults, and long enough to have seen almost every way a student can get stuck.

Several of her students have been with her for years. Some of the people who have written about her on Google have studied with her for three or four years running, which is unusual in private music teaching and is probably the most honest thing anyone can say about a teacher.

A working musician, not only a teacher

Josefa is a composer and arranger with prizes from international competitions, and she still writes. For a student that is not a line on a wall. It means she can take a song that sits too high for a young voice and rewrite it in the right key, or arrange a piece at exactly the level a student can play it now, instead of handing them something they will fight for six months.

How she teaches

Three things come up again and again from her students.

• She is patient without being soft. She will take as long as a student needs, and she will not sign off on sloppy work. Those two things sound contradictory and are not.
• She teaches the student in front of her. Lesson plans bend around the person: an adult with an unpredictable work schedule, a child who needs shorter and more playful lessons, a teenager with an audition date.
• She builds the foundation anyway. Technique, reading, theory and ear training are part of every lesson rather than a separate chore, even for students who came in wanting to play one particular song.

Who she teaches

Children from about age five, teenagers preparing for school auditions and music programs, and adults at every level, including complete beginners in their sixties, seventies and beyond. A good number of her piano students are adults who finally made time for something they had wanted to do for decades.

She teaches piano, voice and guitar, and she also takes on composition, arranging and recording work.

Where lessons happen

At her home studio in West Miami-Dade (33174), minutes from FIU, Westchester, Sweetwater, Doral, Coral Gables and Kendall. In-home lessons are available nearby, with limited availability. Online lessons run over Zoom, FaceTime or WhatsApp video, anywhere in the United States.

In English or in Spanish

Josefa teaches fully in either language, and switches between them mid-lesson when that is what helps. For a bilingual family in Miami that removes a real obstacle, because musical vocabulary is hard enough in your first language.

Quick answers

What are Josefa’s qualifications?

A Master’s degree in Music from the Universidad de las Artes (ISA) in Havana, more than 45 years of teaching experience, and an active career as a composer and arranger with prizes in international competitions.

How long has she been teaching?

More than 45 years, across piano, voice and guitar. Several of her current students have been with her for three years or more.

Does she take complete beginners?

Yes, at any age. Adult beginners are a large part of her studio, and she is used to the first few awkward weeks.

Does she teach in Spanish?

Yes, fully. Lessons run in English or Spanish, whichever the student is more comfortable in, and she moves between the two when it helps.

Can she prepare a student for an audition or exam?

Yes: school and magnet program auditions, recitals, competitions and recordings. As an arranger she can also prepare a custom arrangement at the right level.