Magdalena Garandza was born and raised in New York City and is a graduate of the MAP program at the Bloomingdale School of Music. She found her passion for music through the public school system and attended the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts. During these years, she was the principal clarinetist of the All City High School Orchestra, played in the ISO Symphony and attended the Interlochen Arts Camp. Throughout her musical career she performed at Carnegie Hall multiple times. She was a winner of the Bloomingdale School of Music concerto competition and performed the Mozart clarinet concerto with the orchestra. She also won the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts and All City High School Orchestra concerto competitions where she performed Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsody. To further her education, she attended Carnegie Mellon University where she majored in Clarinet Performance and studied with Michael Rusinek, Principal Clarinet of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. At Carnegie Mellon, she performed in the Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, and in various chamber groups. Magdalena also regularly performs at her church in Brooklyn where she sings as well.

Magdalena loves to share her love and passion for music with everyone and hopes to pass that on to all of her students. One of Magdalena’s primary goals with her students, is to have everyone enjoy and have fun with the music learning process. Through a positive and encouraging environment, she strives to teach necessary fundamentals while still having fun.

When she’s not playing the clarinet, Magdalena likes to spend her free time cooking, reading, making jewelry, crocheting and knitting.