missionstatement

"I want my students to experience the joy of sounding beautiful and professional at the piano - whatever their level.

"My main aim in teaching is to equip every student with as many specific piano-playing skills as they are willing and able to absorb.

"I have been lucky enough to have some truly world-class learning opportunities, in particular some huge leaps forward in understanding and technique when I first attended The Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the age of 18. There are things I know now that I wish I had known as a young musician; I want all my students to get as much from my experience as they can.

"I encourage students to perform every term at the studio, in small groups. These events are friendly and sociable, with family invited to attend, so that the art of performance can be learned in a motivating way. I also often perform at the end of these music evenings so as to give students exposure to some advanced repertoire and to motivate them, showing them what can be achieved at the instrument. I encourage older students to come to international-level concert performances in London, to fully enjoy the whole range of music-making and appreciate music as an educated listener.

"I refuse to patronise any students by only giving them 'so much' just because they might be very young, or an adult beginner who won't make piano playing into a career move.

"Every student is a unique musician and I am ready to guide them as far along the path to professional sounding music-making as possible. There are some specific details to be learned, right from the beginning, that I believe all my students are capable of.

"My hope as a teacher is to be searched, questioned...for all my knowledge, experience and resources to be used as a springboard into valuable and rewarding music-making.

"In no way is teaching a second-best option for 'real' musicians. I am still a performer of music and I believe that performing and teaching complement each other perfectly. My love of music is lived out in two ways; in professional performance, and also in my compulsion to pass on this experience by showing others how to achieve it.

"Teaching someone how to play the piano is part of what it means to be a musician; to analyse and talk about music with a student; to discuss technique with them; to play to them; to hear them play; this is what it means to live with music."