The Silbernik Music Academy offers private Guitar, Piano, and Ukulele lessons to students age 7 and up. We offer the finest music lessons on Chicago's North Shore including Highland Park, Lake Forest, Highwood, Northbrook, Deerfield, Northfield, Lake Bluff, Fort Sheridan, Wilmette, Winnetka, Glenview, Glencoe, Skokie and more! We provide exceptional instruction to students of all skill levels, from complete beginners to music majors. Our lessons are custom tailored to meet each individual student's diverse musical needs. Lessons are held at our Highland Park studio, or online via Zoom or FaceTime.

Eric Sutz graduated with a Bachelor of Music from DePaul University in 1980. While at DePaul he played a wide variety of engagements in addition to teaching piano and guitar. He has been employed as a musician, accompanist, arranger, conductor, and teacher for over forty-three years. From 1981-1993 Eric worked full time as a music director, rehearsal and audition pianist for the Candlelight, Marriott Lincolnshire, Wisdom Bridge and Goodman Theater. Eric also taught music theory at Carmel HS and was the assistant and primary choral director, accompanist, and solo pianist for the European tour of the Concert Choir. Eric studied classical piano with Eloise Niwa and Joyce Sklar, conducting with Dr. William Huber and Kevin Stites, and jazz studies with Judy Roberts, Howard Levy, Larry Novak, Willie Pickens, John Campbell, Joel Daley, Mike Kocour, and Greg Fishman. He also studied the history and styles of the great Chicago boogie and blues artists with Erwin Helfer. He has been an active member of the NSMTA since 1978. His book: “How to Play and Teach Popular Music Creatively” was published in 1986 and has had three printings. Eric is a faculty member of the Music Institute of Chicago and Stevenson HS and has been teaching in his Wheeling, IL home studio since 1984. His hobbies include: Martial arts, investing, travel, yoga, scuba-diving, history, natural history and reading.

Each person requires a different teaching approach. Whether with a use of imagery, dry facts, story telling, imitation, references to things you enjoy or physical hand on hand experience, my job is to find out what speaks to the student the most and use it to the fullest. I believe that in order to give students the best musical experience possible they need to understand all the aspects involved in music making. In my teaching, I like to incorporate various resources available to me, to help enrich student's musical education. I also enforce the knowledge of other components of music: theory, ear training and music history.

For over 10 years Amy Donahue has dedicated her time to offering full-service music lessons to both beginner and advanced students of all ages. She provides a complete lesson program where students learn every aspect of music including: history, theory, composition and technique in playing skills. Whether you want to play piano, learn to sing on key or strum your favorite song on the guitar, Ms. Amy and her staff provides the instruction to help you perform your best.