Meet Mrs. Costa

Emily Costa is a strings teacher with over a decade of experience teaching students throughout Central Florida. In addition to her private studio, she has taught at schools including Park Maitland School, The Life Academy of Excellence, Gateway Christian School, the Suzuki Music Institute, as well as with the Central Florida Youth Orchestra and the Metropolitan Area Youth Symphony. She graduated from Rollins College, and is most proud to be part of creating opportunities for young people to learn and love music. In addition to teaching, she has operated as the Program Manager for the Metropolitan Area Youth Symphony for over 10 years, handling all the details that go into managing a youth orchestra, as well as founded its innovative program “MAYS At Your School” to teach students through the youth orchestra in their schools. Through this program, she taught classes in a variety of settings, working around every new challenge, always with the philosophy that music education should be available to any student willing and wanting to learn.

Beyond the basics of her bio, Mrs. Costa would like to share her personal drive to make sure her students at MAYS have the best experience possible. Saying she grew up in a musical household might be an understatement – her parents are Jonathan and Maureen May (yes, you read that right). Growing up her family talked music, lived music, and breathed music all the time. She even went to Trinity Prep, where we rehearse this season, as a high school student long ago because her dad, Mr. May, started teaching strings there (and Ms. May is still there today). After a lifetime of music and youth orchestra with her dad, teaching beside him during college, and countless memories in between, the unthinkable happened when Mr. May passed away in 2010. At this point he was teaching over 1,000 students per week and in the wake of his passing, Ms. May, Mrs. Costa, and their dear friend Michael Miller, founded the Metropolitan Area Youth Symphony to honor his memory and carry on his life’s work. As you can imagine, MAYS means more to Mrs. Costa and Ms. May than anyone can ever say. And, when words fail, there is always music.

Today, Mrs. Costa lives in Winter Park with her husband of 10 years, Jason, and their three children, Lily, Luke, and Liam, and of course their cat Moxie. Their family takes immense joy in the community shared through the orchestra, and cannot wait to make you a part of it!