I love my ‘work’. I have always been and always wanted to be a teaching musician – that is apart from wanting to be the next Julie Andrews. As a child I sang my way through musical after musical, The Sound of Music, Oklahoma, My Fair Lady etc., but after a reality check at 11 years I realised this was unlikely. By this time I was learning the piano and by 15 had some young and unsuspecting pupils. I enjoyed sharing music and seeing others take pleasure from their playing and quite frankly I have been hooked ever since.

After finishing my degree in Performing Arts (letting go of the dream was difficult) I started teaching piano in earnest. At college I studied with the amazing Carola Grindea who was EPTA’s founder. I went on every course I could and learned from numerous generous teacher musicians. Not long after finishing my degree, my piano practice growing, I kept thinking about the amount of information to be absorbed by new students. They were confronting the technical and physical issues of learning an instrument but could not always maintain a steady beat or understand the difference between rhythm and pulse. Sometimes they could not pitch or sing, yet without these basic skills in place I was teaching them how to play an instrument. Quite by accident I discovered a musicianship course run by the British Kodály Academy and taken by David Vinden. So began another journey as I developed my own musicianship skills and learned how to develop those of my piano students. Nowadays, I rarely take a beginner who I have not taught Kodály and the difference is astounding.

I am not sure I have ever had a career plan as such. I have always played the piano, I have always sung. Now I lead a double life as piano and Kodály teacher and am fairly typical of the ‘portfolio musician’ who has various on-going projects. Every day is different. I teach the piano privately and in a school. Kodály musicianship I teach in a small state primary, privately and at Colourstrings Roehampton and I take two children’s choirs. In addition I review new publications for EPTA Piano Journal and am a marker and tutor for the BKA Kodály Certificate Course. I am currently completing an MA at Trinitylaban and this Summer will be running singing for wellbeing sessions with a pop-up Choir anyone can sing with at venues around London. If you would like more details contact me at [email protected], the website is under construction.

At the end of each day of music I play for myself and am particularly interested in British piano music from the first half of the last century, Arnold Bax, York Bowen and contemporaries. I still have piano lessons and am still enjoying a journey I can never complete. Isn't that just one of the many wonders of a life in music?