About me

I have an undergraduate honours degree and a masters degree in music from the University of Oxford, where I studied with Edward Higginbottom at New College and Owen Rees at The Queen’s College among many amazing and fascinating world-class tutors.

Both Professor Higginbottom and Professor Rees are widely acknowledged to be outstanding musicians and teachers, and both are internationally regarded as among the world’s greatest living academic music directors.

I studied piano at Oxford, and I also specialised in composition, orchestration and the technical analysis of musical theory – especially harmony.

I have Licentiate diplomas from Trinity College London (LTCL) in both performance piano and performance flute.

Experience

I have over 30 years experience performing and teaching music.  I’ve worked with a wide range of musical abilities ranging from beginners taking their first steps into the wonderful world of music-making, through to professional soloists.

I’ve also been lucky enough to work with some amazing opera and musical choruses and soloists over the years, as well as playing with rock bands and jazz ensembles.

These days my musical world mostly revolves around teaching, which is my full-time job.  I find nurturing a budding musician and helping them to grow in confidence and understanding a very rewarding experience.

Why study music?

There are many reasons to think about including music-making in your life or the life of your child.  There are medical and health benefits, such as the improvements to brain synapse connections one gains from playing the piano in particular.

And of course there is the impact learning music has on other aspects of development such as maths and problem-solving, enhanced levels of concentration and strength of focus in demanding situations like exams or (later in life) in the boardroom, as well as the recognised ability those trained in music have to draw on their confidence gained through an awareness and experience of live music and apply it in non-musical performance contexts, such as exams, presentations and interviews.

For me the primary reason to play is for that sheer pleasure of creating live music, of setting fire to the imagination and having the technical mastery and confidence to run with it.