My current teacher is the most expensive I've had at $60 Aus per hour.
She is Ukrainian, started piano as a preschooler under a Russian school teacher who was herself a child prodigy pianist trained in the Russian school. I have not been with her for long, and her English is not terribly clear, so I am a little unsure of all her history. I think she attended a music school in Ukraine or Paris or something. I think she has a masters in performance from the conservatorium in Hobart, Tasmania (Aus). She has performed innumerable etudes, concertos and major works and passed her courses with distinctions although she has not played much in the last number of years.
However, she has a lot to learn about teaching. I don't think she has been teaching for long, although in Russian schools they teach pedagogy as part of a performance degree. She seems to lack much awareness about the needs and experiences of students. She has been able to play the paino brilliantly for as long as she can remeber and she really doesn't seem to understand the process of discovering how to do things. She also doesn't have a business set up very well. Although she is a highly competent pianist, whom I hope to learn a lot from, she asks me a lot about teaching - methods and business. I get very frustrated with her teaching, but I think I will learn much from her as I digest and discover things during practice - I often find an answer to a problem during practice and then realise that was what she was probably trying to tell me to do, but she expects me to do it straight away when I don't have a clue what she is talking about.
She is a very clever person, though, and would have been a totally awesome performer when she was practicing consistently. I never resent paying her, even though the money is a lot out of my small budget every week.