artist
I began playing the piano by ear at a very young age. By the age of 11, having passed all my grades with distinction and won many prizes in junior competitions, I began performing as a soloist in piano concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and others and also giving recitals. I had great teachers in Ella Pounder then later Denis Matthews.
I performed regularly in concerts and recitals until entering the Royal Northern College of Music at 18, where I studied with Ryszard Bakst and also had singing lessons with Vera Cross. I appeared in public concerts there regularly, playing Mendelssohn’s G minor Concerto, Strawinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments and many other works. I won the Elizabeth Hannah Lees Scholarship and the Frederick Dawson piano prize and after graduating with first class honours, I continued my music studies independently, exploring jazz piano and vocals and music production.
I continue to perform regularly, now with emphasis on my innovative solo shows and recording projects featuring my own compositions and improvisations, using cutting-edge digital technology.
teacher
After graduating from the RNCM, I taught piano and singing privately in the conventional way, successfully taking young students to grade 8 and beyond. I also worked as a freelance coach and répétiteur for professional singers and instrumentalists. But I really wanted to teach people how to be fluent in the language of music, fostering skills like improvising, playing by ear and fluent sight-reading but hesitated as my approach was so different from conventional ones.
For a few years, I taught A level music and production at Aquinas College – an FE college in Stockport. Whilst there, especially when studying for my PGCE, I began to formulate my ideas about training fluent musicianship. I now live in London and offer innovative training in fluent musicianship for piano and singing students, using my own system and have created a website offering materials for training musical fluency on the piano – PlayPianoFluently.
Full CV available by request.