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May 20, 2025 45 mins

Flute 360 | Episode 329: “Your Studio Is a Lab – Teaching with Curiosity & Care with Alexandra Petropoulos”

Have you ever wished your flute studio felt more joyful, creative, and… human?

In today’s episode, Dr. Heidi Kay Begay sits down with Alexandra Petropoulos—aka The Flute Nerd—to unpack how your studio can become a supportive, experimental, and healthy space for your students and for you as the teacher. Alex opens up about her 8-year break from playing, what brought her back to the flute, and how curiosity, compassion, and a laboratory mindset transformed her teaching.

If you’ve ever battled perfectionism, burnout, or imposter syndrome in your playing or teaching, this conversation is a must-listen. You’ll walk away with tangible ideas for reframing mistakes, building trust with your students, and empowering them to explore artistry on their terms.

Click play to explore:

  • Why your studio should feel like a laboratory, not a pressure cooker
  • How Alex rebuilt her relationship with music after academic burnout
  • Tools for cultivating curiosity, permission, and self-compassion in your students
  • Releasing rigid pedagogy and embracing experimentation in your lessons

Whether you’re a teacher, student, or somewhere in between, this episode will help you reset and reimagine what a healthy music studio can truly look like.

UPCOMING EVENTS!
Join us LIVE on Saturday, May 31st, 2025 @ 12 PM CT for the next Flute 360 Accelerator session featuring Alexandra Petropoulos! She’ll be guiding us through how to combat perfectionism in our playing and teaching. You’ll leave with mindset tools, clarity, and community support.

👉 Register through this link – click here!

Save the Date!
On Saturday, July 12th, 2025 @ 12 PM CT, Dr. Heidi will be guest presenting for Alex’s Flute Nerd Lab, sharing how to express yourself through storytelling. You won’t want to miss this creative and empowering session—link coming soon! 

Connect with Alex (The Flute Nerd):

Resources:

Follow Heidi!

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