RULES & PRACTICES

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             Following policies help everyone to make life in our artistic community more organized and comfortable, creating magical environment for our activities. It took us many years to develop these simple rules. They are based on profound experience, common sense and industry customs. We welcome our students and their parents to voice comments and suggestions.

                                                           Your opinion is extremely important to us!

1. We reserve the right to change or modify studio policies and schedules at any time. 

2. Please be respectful of other students and parents, and use of the studio equipment. Disrespectful comments or destructive behavior will not be tolerated. 

3. For the safety of our students, we ask that students under the age of 12 be picked up from our studio waiting area by a parent or guardian. Please do not let your child run into the parking lot before or after the lesson. 

4. We assume we are allowed to use images and photos of the students, their parents and relatives in our promotional and publicity materials, unless students and/or parents inform us otherwise in writing. 

5. Participation in our events (recitals, performances, festivals, competitions, tests, etc.) are encouraged but not mandatory. 

6. Lessons are scheduled at the same weekly time slot. Please arrange any change in the schedule directly with your teacher. 

7. We consider school year a period from the beginning of the month of September until the end of the month of June. 

8. We provide lessons during the months of July and August as well, however, our schedule during those months can vary. 

9. Remember, when everyone is having fun, vacations and holidays, we, musicians, work. Therefore, our studying and creative work continues throughout the entire year. We practice and perform during all holidays, that includes Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Independence and Labor days, Yom Kippur, Chinese New Year, and so forth. 

10. Due to our busy schedule it is extremely difficult to change the time slot during the school year period. Please make sure to choose a convenient time slot in the beginning of the school year (September-June). 

11. In case you need to change your time slot during the school year we will do our best to accommodate your request. However, as practice shown it might be extremely difficult to arrange. In this case we will stay with the time slot you chose in the beginning of the school year, and you will be charged money even if you do not show up at the lesson.

12. Students are allowed to exchange the time slots with each other directly. However, PLEASE REMEMBER the party that initiated the change will be financially responsible for any possible schedule conflicts and misunderstandings affecting normal flow of the schedule. 

13. We charge a tuition fee for private lessons one month in advance. Chamber music and theory classes added to the monthly invoice at the end of each month in accordance with the quantity of classes received. 

14. We allow one month of absence/vacation time per a calendar year. To keep the time slot reserved during the month of absence students must either attend lessons for 11 previous moths, or pre-pay 11 months of lessons in advance. 

15. Students who prepay 11 months of lessons awarded one month of lessons free of charge. To avoid additional charges, the payment must be done either with cash or check. In case of credit card payment, a credit card transaction fee of 3.5% will be added to the total tuition amount of the invoice. 

16. We do not cancel private lessons - we allow lessons to be rescheduled with make ups. However, we allow students to request no more than 3 make up private lessons per 6 months. If a student needs to reschedule more than 3 private lessons per 6 months, we will consider the private lessons a student could not attend forfeited and full lesson fee for those private lessons will be charged. 

17. A 24-hour advance written notice is required to change or cancel a class, otherwise, your class will be forfeited. A full lesson fee for no-show or late cancellation may be assessed if advance notice is not provided. 

18. We do not do any makeups for any of the group classes (theory, chamber, ensembles, etc). Another words, if the teacher was present at the classroom and the lesson took place, and the student could not attend it because of any reason we still charge money for the lesson. Unfortunately we cannot shift time of the group class lessons to accommodate individual students' needs, please plan your timetables accordingly! 

19. If your teacher is unable to teach, a substitute will be arranged. However, if your class was cancelled without the option of a substitute, you may be entitled to a makeup lesson. NO CREDITS on your next invoices allowed. 

20. WE DO NOT OFFER ANY REFUNDS EVER. Any overpayment is always credited toward the next billing cycle. 

21. The makeup class can be scheduled anytime convenient for the student and the teacher. There are no make ups given for no shows and NO REFUNDS for missed or cancelled lessons. 

22. To terminate lessons and cancel tuition during the school year, a 30-day written notice is required prior to the first lesson of the upcoming month. Another words, a student will be charged for one month of lessons followed the termination notice. It is up to the student either to take those lessons or not. There are NO REFUNDS for tuition or cancelled lessons. 

23. Paper invoices with magically pre-stamped envelopes to mail the tuition payment are mailed out by 12th of each month. If invoice was not received by the 20th day of the month, please contact us right away! 

24. The due date for tuition payments is the 1st day of the month. If we do not RECEIVE the payment by the 1st day of the month a late fee of $39.00 will be assessed. Returned checks have a penalty fee of $39.00 as well. 

25. We accept cash, checks, credit cards and money orders. We prefer checks or credit cards - it helps us with the accounting. If you choose to pay cash, please make sure to have your invoice signed by whomever you give the payment to. That way we can keep our wallets organized in case of possible disputes. 

26. You can place your credit card on file with us by signing a credit card authorization form on the invoice you receive. In this case your card will be charged on the 28th day of each month. We are proud to announce, within 15 years of our credit card transactions we have never had any security breaches - that is because there is only one person allowed access to the stored credit card information, so we always know whom to hold responsible! 

27. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.