Music Institute of Long Island (MILI) - Best of Long Island Music School, Manhasset NY

Carol Kushner is not only the most influential teacher in my life, but a mentor and a great friend to me in many ways. I spent many years studying violin with her at MILI and am forever grateful for my time there. She was a God send to me and had she not been there for me in my youth, I am not being facetious when I say that I might not have made it through.

Carol isn't just any ordinary violin teacher. She is a great teacher and is gifted at what she does. She cares about you. She wants to infuse you with her passion and love for music and bring out your greatest potential. She loves her students, treats them like family, and is the most passionate music teacher I've ever known, who lives for it every day. She sleeps, eats, and breathes playing and teaching music and the violin. She has mentored and taught countless numbers of students, making an indelible positive impact on their lives forever.

Carol completely transformed the way I play and how I listened to music. I came to her a very young, timid, ho-hum player, and came out a passionate, musical, and expressive musician who was able to pursue music to a high degree in my own life. Carol's musical influence upon my life still carries on to this day as I pass on the torch of music to my own children.

She is not only the best children's violin teacher in all of New York, but also a phenomenally gifted and well-renowned violin teacher of all age groups, who can build any talent into a professional player. She has done it herself and has the resume to back it up!

If you want your child to just have a nice time playing music and that's all, then Carol is probably not the right teacher for you. But if you want your child to not only play beautiful music and receive the best musical education they can get, but also have their lives changed for the better, then Carol and MILI is the right place for you.

I love you, Carol! You're the best! And to all the rest of the MILI crew, you're the best school on Long Island, hands down!

My sons, Stephen and Robert, have been going to Mili for over three years now. Both take private lessons with Geri. Since their very first lessons, they have enjoyed going to Mili. Geri has a great way of working with the students, and it is evident that she cares about them greatly. She has helped the boys improve their technique and appreciate music. They have improved a lot over the years. My boys have also taken chamber and group lessons with Carol. Carol is very passionate and full of energy. She teaches the boys to put their heart into the music and express themselves through music with enthusiasm. Both my boys find music a great addition to enrich their daily life. They enjoy listening to music, playing music, and sharing music with the community. We are very happy to have found Mili and the boys will continue to learn, play and enjoy music at Mili.

Christian Li (15 years old) and Jessica Li (13 years old) has had Ms Elena Basok as their piano teacher since 3.5 years old. Ms Elena is an outstanding teacher who focuses on excellence and is truly passionate and caring. She teaches creativity, dynamics and also helps students prepare for competitions, community service events, recitals and Nysmma exams. Both Christian & Jessica has been Grand Prix winners of NY Concert Festival Music International competitions multiple times and performed at Carnegie Hall. When we left Manhasset to move to HK in 2019, we were so sad to lose Ms Elena as a teacher but after moving back in 2022 from HK, we went back to her and it’s like we never left. She continues to be amazing and focused on providing exceptional teaching. She is excellent with all students at all ages. I have recommended her to my family, friends and coworkers and we all love her. She is truly the best piano teacher anyone can have!

Best,
Sophia and Li Family

Wish we’d found this school sooner. My son has special needs and started taking cello lessons elsewhere almost 2 years ago. We just started with Patrick S.this summer at MIlI and we love the school and the teacher so far. The staff are all very friendly and helpful. Patrick is patient, encouraging and is an excellent teacher. I find him to be very professional and experienced.

Music Institute of Long Island is a great place, the teachers there are very professional and passionate in what they teach. I have two daughters learning violin both of them have made large strides in their skills under Ms. Carol and Ms. Giri, they are very patient and meticulous. I highly recommend to attend there. - Jessica Tu

My daughter Madeline has been going to MILI for almost 3 years. She takes piano lessons with Ms. Elena and violin lessons with Ms. Dorothy. Both teachers are amazing! They show an immense amount of patience and encouragement to help Madeline achieve her potential. She not only improved her musical instrument skills, but also slowly overcome her anxiety of performing on stage. Thank you MILI!

My son has been taking violin lessons at MILI for the past 4 ½ years with Carol Kushner. She has helped him immensely. She has taken the time to work with him and make him a better musician. His goal is to become a music teacher and she tirelessly worked with him to prepare for his college music auditions. She even loaned him her personal bow to practice and use at auditions. She is truly invested in his success and has gone above and beyond as his instructor and mentor.

My daughter took lessons at another school and I felt that basics were not being taught correctly. Ms. Carol started from the beginning and taught the proper stance, finger positions and how to hold the bow properly. She has a great assessment of how each child is and caters to their individual personalities. Ms. Carol has spunky personality and I think part of it is to engage the younger children to have fun in class. Sometimes she can be strict but I think that discipline is necessary to produce a great student of anything and especially a difficult instrument like violin. I studied music as a child and I can deeply appreciate different methods she uses to improve certain techniques. Producing a great musician takes discipline of parents also and I appreciate that honesty from Ms. Carol. MILI has produced great musicians in the past and I hope my child comes to appreciate and love music like Ms. Carol and Ms. Geri.

I started going to MILI when I was just a few months old for kindermusik. I continued to study violin and chamber music at MILI until I graduated high school. I earned a Bachelors of Music and I could not be more happy with how much MILI has prepared me for it. Each instructor truly cares about the student, and adjusts their teaching style to help the student progress more effectively. Carol and Geri are very passionate directors who are compassionate and funny people that truly make MILI a family.

Music Institute of LI is a great Music School.

MILI is a wonderful pre-college school. It is fun program, and nurturing yet serious in learning. The teaching faculty are all professionals and more importantly want their students to do their best. Many students have won awards and recognition.
My daughter started violin at MILI at 4 years old, studied with Ms Geri and Ms. Carol. She gave many performances at MILI and won many 1st prize awards, All-County and LISFA.

This is a very sad review to be writing, but I don't feel that I have a choice.

We started with Carol Kushner around two months ago. Carol is clearly a master in what she does. However, we have had to part ways shortly after beginning. Please allow me to explain.

My younger daughter is 9 and my older daughter is 11. Right from the beginning, Carol was very passionate about working with my girls. But soon, this passion became frustration combined with yelling. My older daughter had a previous violin teacher for 4 years, and we were looking for a new teacher because she had plateaued with him. Carol immediately brought my older daughter to the beginning, to repair all the damage that the previous teacher had done (everything he taught her was apparently wrong). Many lessons were spent on finger positioning, and when my older daughter was having difficulty adjusting to the new techniques, Carol would get impatient and start yelling regularly. It was very uncomfortable for us.

With my younger daughter, things got far worse. The yelling and strictness made my 9 year old so uncomfortable that she started being disrespectful to Carol. I own that 100%, and I should have done something to fix the situation. It is not ok for a 9 year old to be disrespectful to a mid 50's adult. Carol was very upset with the disrespect, and started verbally abusing my daughter. In Carol's words, "I was mean to your daughter. Yes, I was. " To the point that my 9 year old cried hysterically after one of the lessons. When I told Carol that she cried hysterically, Carol's response was "Ok". A complete lack of any empathy whatsoever. When I called her on the phone to discuss what happened, she pushed back asking "Well did she cry because she was trying to manipulate you? Was she actually sad? " I felt so uncomfortable, clearly we had to get out of this situation.

To my older daughter, Carol was more optimistic. But upon trying to teach her how to read music, and my older daughter not understanding the lesson, Carol turned to me and asked me if my daughter was autistic, she is very slow with music reading and maybe we should look into a possible autism diagnosis. I responded that she got straight A's last quarter and thought that her comments were completely out of line. The next lesson, when my older daughter was not laughing at Carol's jokes, Carol said to her face "You know, you are weird. "

I have also witnessed how Carol interacts with the secretary Mei (May?). Carol is so abusive to Mei it is sickening. Mei is probably around 70 years old, and I believe has been working with Carol for many years. Imagine being a 70 year old woman and being verbally abused on a regular basis, it was horrifying to watch. I felt so bad for Mei.

This whole experience was a complete nightmare. I feel like I am writing this from the Twilight Zone.

Sincerely,

Moshe Adrian