My name is Raisa Khalfina, and I am a music teacher at Somerset Academy. I have been a music educator since 1984, teaching students at elementary and college levels. In addition, I trained future music teachers, taught piano and music theory, and served as a piano accompanist for choral groups, traveling with them throughout Ukraine, Russia, and neighboring countries. I still keep in touch with my students and take pride in the fact that many of them became musicians and music teachers.

I immigrated to the United States in 1996 and soon thereafter, started working at Michael Krop Senior High School in Miami as a community school instructor, teaching both music basics and piano to students aged 5-17.

So far, music has been a part of my life for almost four decades. The most rewarding aspect of teaching for me is seeing the changes in students who have taken my classes. I want to see them happy, open-minded and better able to appreciate the world around them using the knowledge I gave them. This is my second year at Somerset Academy, and teaching at this beautiful school has given me a new opportunity to follow my lifelong passion - teaching music.