Dr. Dawn Dalangin Hawk is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM) and Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) Certified teacher. "Dr. D" is the Founder and Executive Director of Hawk Music Academy where she teaches through advanced levels of piano and theory. She has over 23 years of teaching experience and has taught a wide variety of ages and levels in private, group, and collegiate settings. She enjoys teaching students of all ages and levels, having taught students as young as 3 months old (her daughter, Lilu!) through students in their seventies. 

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In 2022, Dr. D was awarded the Teacher of Distinction RCM award for the Southeast region of the United States and recognized for her leadership as a music teacher in the community. As an RCM Certified advanced specialist in piano, she has successfully prepared students for exams through Level 10 in piano, history and theory/counterpoint. Her students have consistently received high marks on their Royal Conservatory examinations, with several receiving the highest marks locally, statewide, and regionally. She highly values the RCM program so much that she has made herself take the exams for violin, an instrument she picked up a few years ago, just to be able to help her daughter be a violinist some day! As a violin student, she has earned top marks, including the Regional Gold Medal, for the highest exam mark in the southeastern region.

 

At local festivals and competitions, her students are consistently selected for special performance and scholarship awards. She is proud to say that her graduated students have been accepted into prestigious schools, such as The Juilliard School, Boston Conservatory, Indiana University, Purdue University, Georgia Tech, University of Georgia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Dawn started playing the piano at the age of 11 in Germany where her army dad was stationed, when her parents won a keyboard at a bingo game. Her mom bought her books from the local thrift store, and she taught herself how to play for a few months. Recognizing that she needed a teacher, her mom found her a teacher on the military base. In less than a year, she was already playing Mozart Sonatas and Chopin Nocturnes. At the same time, she took up playing the flute in her middle school band. In the 7th grade, her family was stationed to Colorado Springs, where she studied with multiple teachers through high school, including Dr. Curtis Smith from the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. In high school, Dawn also continued playing the flute where she was section leader and enjoyed being in the marching band!

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As a child, Dawn excelled in mathematics and science. She enjoyed building and creating things. So, after high school, she pursued and received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering initially, while taking piano lessons at Colorado State University on scholarship. Her piano professor, Dr. David King, convinced her she should be a Piano Performance Major, so she added a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance, where she then studied with Dr. Janet Landreth. As an undergraduate student, Dawn received the "Best of Show" award for her shop practicum project and was the only female student to be certified in sand casting and welding. Her senior design project was the creation of an electronic and mechanical pipe organ, which was awarded 2nd place in the annual CSU Engineering Days competition. Her team consisted of two friends who were also double majors in music and engineering! In music, she also competed and won the annual CSU Concerto Competition, where she played Prokofiev's first Piano Concerto with the symphony orchestra. 

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It was during this time that Dawn taught at a local music school, the Westin Arts Academy, where she discovered her love of teaching. After graduating with her engineering degree, she decided to pursue a Master of Music in Piano Performance at CSU and also opened her first music school, the Amadeus Piano Academy, where now husband, Eric, and fellow HMA instructor, Missy Lopez, also taught! Upon graduation, Dawn was selected as one of the Outstanding Graduate Students at CSU. Her featured piece on her Master's Recital was a combined recital with Eric, where she performed Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with members of the symphony orchestra, and Eric conducting!

 

During her masters, she was offered an engineering position at Boeing for missile defense, but loved piano performing and teaching so much, she declined the position. 

​The academy was a successful school, and she enjoyed serving as the director and head instructor. However, she and Eric decided to pursue their doctorate degrees at the University of Georgia, where they were on full assistantships. As a graduate teaching assistant, she taught private lessons and group piano classes at the UGA's Community Music School in Athens, was Professor of Music/Piano at Andrew College in Cuthbert for two years and was formerly studio manager and instructor at PianoAlpharetta for three years. In 2016, Dawn completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance, studying with Dr. Evgeny Rivkin, and a minor in Piano Pedagogy with Dr. Pete Jutras.

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While completing her doctorate, she started a private studio in her home in Cumming with Eric. After only about a year and a half, they had close to one-hundred students at their house, so she decided to open Hawk Music Academy in Vickery Village in August of 2018. As a small business owner, she is thankful to have survived COVID in their early business years, especially since she was pregnant with her first child in 2020 and also had a litter of puppies! The academy moved to their own building in Vickery Village in March of 2024 and has opened up new musical opportunities for the community.

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Dawn is an active member of Music Teachers National Association, Georgia Music Teachers Association, and the Cherokee Music Teachers Association. She is also the Chair of the Cumming Federation of Music Clubs and was named the 2017 Georgia Federation Festival Chair of the year. In 2014, with her husband, Dr. Eric Hawk, she co-founded the Alpharetta Symphony Orchestra, where she served as the pianist and active board member.

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In 2021, the Hawks created the Symphony Orchestra of North Georgia (SONG), a non-profit community organization, with three ensembles to provide orchestral opportunities for youths through adults. Dawn serves as the President, Executive Director, and Education Coordinator, while Eric serves as the Music Director. In SONG, she also plays the piano and has recently picked up playing the bass. 

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As a pianist, she has an active performing career, frequently performing in solo and collaborative events. Dawn has been selected as a performer in the PianoTexas festival and has appeared as soloist with the Colorado State University Symphony Orchestra, the Alpharetta Symphony Orchestra, and Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra. She is also a member of the Georgia Musicale Group, where she has performed in numerous venues, including Spivey Hall.

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When she is not practicing or teaching, she enjoys yoga, cycling, running, various artistic projects, remodeling her house, gardening and playing with her five labradors, Wall-E (dad), Luna (unrelated), Aggie (mom), Pippin (pup born with cleft palate) and Toby (pup, brother to Pippin), two maltipoos, Henry and Toodles - AND - her four bunnies, Lucy, Charlie, Linus and Sally.

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The Hawks have a five-year old daughter, Lilu, who was named after their dear chocolate labrador, who passed away from cancer in 2019. Lilu is well on her way to becoming a professional musician! She has perfect pitch and a wonderful sense of rhythm. She graduated from HMA's Toddler Tunes program and continues to take voice lessons from Ms. Sally Walsh. She is also a violin student in the Suzuki program and has taken piano lessons with Mommy since she was 3 months old :)