We are ALWAYS looking for instructors at Expressions!
Since Expressions opened in September 2010, we have been growing at the rate of about 200 private students on average each year, so we are constantly on the lookout for highly competent instructors to join our community of schools in Metro Detroit and Metro DC. Even if we are not in need of a particular type of instructor at the moment, we likely will be soon. We keep all prospective teacher information on file and refer to it first before posting an available position. So if you are an instructor interested in teaching at Expressions either now or in the future, please get in touch with us and request to be added to our prospective instructor file!
NOW HIRING IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS:
METRO DETROIT:
Novi, MI
Troy, MI
Plymouth-Canton, MI
SW Canton, MI
West Bloomfield, MI
Rochester Hills, MI
METRO DC:
Annandale, VA
Ashburn, VA
Burke, VA
Fairfax, VA
Great Falls, VA
Herndon, VA
McLean, VA
Rockville, MD
Vienna, VA
Now Hiring Instructors for these instruments:
Piano
Voice
Guitar/Bass Guitar/Ukulele
Drums
Violin/Viola
Cello
Clarinet, Saxophone, Flute
Trumpet, Tuba, Trombone
Instructors to teach our 3-5 year-old private lesson program called Animal Adventures in Music
Requirements:
Preferably pursuing or obtained a university degree related to music or at least has received substantial training in their instrument
Experience teaching private music lessons to children and adults
Comfortable teaching a variety of styles and genres
Planning to remain in the area and commit to this position for at least a few years
Organized, reliable, punctual
Own the instrument(s) that you teach (our studios are equipped with pianos and drumsets)
Open to learning and growing with our community of amazing instructors!
Interested teachers: please apply by completing the questionnaire below!
Once we receive your application, we will email you within a week to let you know whether we would like to schedule an interview. Upon completing the interview, we will let you know shortly whether we would like to invite you to be an EMA instructor!
*All interviews will take place virtually via Zoom.
“I love working at Expressions! The community is warm and welcoming, the facilities are great, and all the supplies and music I might need are readily available. It’s a fantastic balance of camaraderie and professionalism of which I feel fortunate to be a part.
The administrative staff is way on top of things, and so I always know when somebody has called with a cancellation or if I have a new student scheduled. Everything is super organized at Expressions, and that makes my life easy. I don’t have to find students to enroll, bill them, explain policies, deal with scheduling…basically all I have to do is the fun part – teaching! Expressions is an awesome place to work and I’d recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of music, fun, and lovely people.”
WHY MUSIC TEACHERS CHOOSE TO TEACH AT EXPRESSIONS:
A CONSTANT FLOW OF NEW STUDENTS TO KEEP SCHEDULES AS FULL AS POSSIBLE
Over the course of the year, students can move or quit. This can leave a teacher with gaps or holes in their schedule. At our schools, we spend a lot of resources on advertising and marketing year-round to keep our teachers' schedules as full as possible. We are continually registering new students for our private music lessons even during typically slower registration months like April and July.
UNLIKE internet referral services, it is in our best interest to keep your schedule full! With the other companies, they want as many teachers as possible in as many places as possible. They don't care if you only have two students. We have to pay for studios and it takes time and money to hire instructors. Therefore we want you to have a full schedule and succeed as a music teacher! It is far easier to support one teacher with a full schedule than it is to support 15 teachers with a couple students each. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒋𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔’ 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 80-95% 𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍.
EXTRAS ARE TAKEN CARE OF – YOUR ONLY RESPONSIBILITY IS TO TEACH
Our organized and friendly administrative and management staff handle all of the details. From scheduling to collecting fees to organizing recitals. These details are handled by our administrators, not the teacher. This means the teacher is free to focus on teaching and not get bogged down by administration or handling awkward situations in regard to tuition collection or scheduling. Driving all over town for a couple lessons, trying to remember who is months behind on tuition, and trying to protect your time against student cancellations with no pay are all problems of the past.
OUR TEACHERS ARE EMPLOYEES
Most music schools or stores hire their teachers as independent contractors to come and go. At Expressions, our teachers are part of our family, and so even if they only teach one day with us, they are classified as an employee, which provides many benefits in the case of seeking a car loan, home mortgage, or other applications which look more favorably upon a consistent employee job as opposed to a contractor position. Employee jobs are sometimes hard to come by for professional musicians, so we are proud to offer this benefit! Our teachers are conveniently paid via direct deposit every two weeks.
HEALTH INSURANCE, 401K, PTO BENEFITS PACKAGE AVAILABLE
We are disrupting the industry and leading the way in providing full-time, stable, secure employment positions for our qualifying private music teachers. We are very excited and proud to offer this opportunity to our incredible faculty. For our qualifying teachers (full-time at 34+ hours/week), we have an attractive complete benefits package available. This package includes:
Full coverage health and dental insurance package (the same incredible package used by the CEO, CFO, COO, & all full-time employees at Expressions)
401k retirement plan with up to a 5% match
7 days of PTO per year
75% lifetime discount for yourself or a family or friend taking private lessons at Expressions
“Senior” faculty title
Option to select a private recital day just for you and your students at our facility
Complementary subscription to “You Need a Budget” budgeting app
Expressions “swag bag” gift at $150 value as a welcome to “Senior” full-time status :)
YOUR TIME IS RESPECTED AND YOU ARE PAID WHEN STUDENTS CANCEL LATE
Our teachers are paid when students do not provide 24-hour notice. Even when they DO provide 24-hour notice, we do our best to book a make-up lesson in that spot so that you are still paid. Our teachers are very comfortable knowing how much income they will make in any given month.
NO HAVING TO COME IN FOR EXTRA MAKE-UP LESSONS
Make-ups only occur within your regular teaching schedule; no make-ups on random days and times. Students sign up for make-up lessons over other students’ absences. This means when one of your students is absent, we turn that lesson time into an available make-up time for another student. The system is flexible for our students and families, and means you never have to worry about setting aside time outside of your regular schedule for make-ups, or teaching an unpaid make-up lesson.
USE THE MATERIALS YOU LIKE BEST
There is no mandated school-wide curriculum or set of method books. Unlike many other music schools or stores, we are not looking to sell any merchandise or books. We trust our teachers at EMA to be experts in their fields, and encourage them to use the materials they think are best for each individual student.
STUDENT RECITALS
All recitals are completely organized and run by EMA staff and are offered twice yearly (Spring Season in May/June and Winter Season in November/December) for all students. We have a beautiful concert venue in Novi for our Detroit region and in Fairfax in our DC region, and our administrative team takes care of all logistics from helping students sign up to the physical set-up/breakdown, as well as everything involved with the post-recital reception.
COMFORTABLE AND PROFESSIONAL TEACHING ENVIRONMENT
We provide our teachers with a beautiful, comfortable, spacious teaching space. All of our locations are incredibly clean, new, and well-maintained with ample waiting room for all students, as well as large, comfortable teaching rooms. Plus, we have coffee, WIFI, and a teacher’s lounge for making copies, socializing, or taking breaks.
Check out photos of our beautiful facilities HERE.
ALWAYS KNOW YOUR SCHEDULE WITH OUR ONLINE SCHEDULING SYSTEM
Access your updated schedule, absences, make-ups, etc. online through your teacher portal at all times. Our scheduling system is incredibly easy to navigate and allows teachers to always be kept up to date on their students and schedule from home or on-the-go or wherever you are. Plus every time a student cancels a lesson, enrolls, withdraws, or changes their schedule, you will immediately be sent an email and text notification and your portal schedule will be automatically updated.
MOTIVATE YOUR STUDENTS WITH OUR LEVEL UP PROGRAM
Our Level Up program is incredibly customizable for teachers and very motivating for students. Our Level Up books help keep things organized and provide an easy way for parents to see their child’s progress, with fun practice exercise pages and challenges. If you’ve ever wanted a way to inspire students to practice harder, make more progress, and get parents on board like never before, this is it! Our students remain in lessons longer and achieve higher because of this program, which is so flexible and easy for teachers to use.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR GIANT LIBRARY OF MUSIC
Finding repertoire at EMA is easy. All of our teachers have access to our huge library of sheet music and songbooks. The contents of the library can also be viewed through our Teacher Resources page from home or wherever you are, meaning you won’t have to comb through stacks of books to find what you’re looking for.
FRIENDLY COMMUNITY AND COLLABORATIVE OPPORTUNITIES
We are constantly creating opportunities for instructors and staff to get to know one another and support one another. One of the greatest resources available at EMA is membership to a huge, friendly, chatty community of other teaching professionals. We encourage collaboration and do everything we can to support it!
NO NON-COMPETE CLAUSE
Our teachers don’t have to worry about any non-compete clause and most typically teach at several schools or their own private studio in addition to teaching at Expressions. We understand that musicians usually need to work several jobs in order to make a living and we support that wholeheartedly! So if you already teach at another school or plan to in the future, no matter where it’s located, we still welcome you to teach at EMA.
401K MATCH OPPORTUNITY
Any teachers who work 1,000+ hours/year with Expressions qualify for our 401k retirement program with a generous 3% match!
RESPECT AND APPRECIATION
Excellent teachers don’t grow on trees. We truly value and respect each one of our instructors. Feel free to ask for references from other current instructors. They love it here!
What our teachers have to say…
“As a piano teacher for some thirty years now, I’ve found Expressions Music Academy to be an outstanding venue to do what I love to do—teach! The atmosphere is vibrant with music, and excited children of all ages and ethnicities scurry the brightly-colored, decorated halls. The support staff is friendly, competent, and efficient in handling the steady influx of new students. Their hard work allows teachers the freedom to concentrate their energies on doing what they do best. As one of the many interesting features of the Academy, students benefit from the varying styles and experiences of alternate teachers if they can’t make their regularly scheduled lesson and they can even experiment with different instruments if they so choose! Regular recitals are part of the curriculum at Expressions and they take place in their very own recital hall complete with a lighted stage upon which sits a beautiful nine-foot grand piano. I love teaching at Expressions Music Academy, it’s been a blessing really, and I hope to continue to do so for a very long time!”
“What I love about working at Expressions Music Academy is how much support I get from the staff. The front desk staff are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. They work tirelessly to ensure that every student has a satisfactory experience at EMA. They take care of all scheduling, makeups, and other administrative tasks so that I can focus on one thing: teaching my students. I receive advice and support from other staff members that help me to become a better teacher and whenever I have a question, I always receive a fast answer. Everyone is super friendly and supportive and it is an exceptionally welcoming work environment. I always look forward to coming to work!”
“What impressed me most about Expressions Music Academy, when I visited the school and subsequently started teaching there, was the overall feeling of the musical environment it provides for children of almost any age and adults as well. From early music classes to ukulele, Expressions provides the students and teachers with all the supplies needed for a proper music lesson including music, stands, pianos, monthly recitals to give students an opportunity to perform in front of an audience and a beautiful studio to hold the lessons in. More importantly though, it is modeled after a university style environment to give both students and teachers an experience that is like no other I know of, except that of a university or music conservatory.
It has been such a different experience than teaching privately in my home for many reasons. I don’t have to worry about getting my name out through word of mouth or investing in any other marketing to find students who need instruction, unlike teaching privately I have the added security of being paid for my time even if a student cancels last minute and I have the benefit of other instructors who can take over in my absence. I could not be happier that I found and started at Expressions.
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“I enjoy working at Expressions because I can honestly say they focus on both student and teacher growth! Having a large supportive network of teachers is indispensable for ensuring student success. I can borrow literature, learn about new technology, and inquire about different approaches in the hallway.”
“The best part about teaching at Expressions is the supportive community of staff and teachers. I have taught at several other music schools, and none of them have even come close to providing the support I have found at EMA. From lesson materials to the ease of scheduling recitals, EMA always seeks to make sure I have what I need as a teacher, so that in turn I can focus on giving my students the best experience.”