NEWS & EVENTS
This page includes both forthcoming and past events, as well as recent interviews. It also provides information about publications, compositions, and workshops. You will find details on adjudicating, presentations, reviews, as well as holiday and celebratory posts.
Festive Greetings 2024
As another year draws to a close, it can be helpful to spend some time reflecting. As usual, it’s been a busy year for me and I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to work with some fantastic contributors here on this blog and there’s lots more planned for 2025. I’d like to take this chance to…
New RSL Awards Classical Piano Exam Repertoire
For the past eighteen months I’ve been working with the music examination board RSL Awards. RSL are renowned for their rock and pop exams known as Rockschool. This arm of their work is popular the world over but probably less known is their classical exam syllabus. They published the classical piano exam syllabus in 2020…
Schott Student Edition: Dances and Character Pieces by Narcisa Freixas
This week marks the publication of my third Schott Student Edition volume. Written and compiled with instrumental tuition in mind, each book in this series is edited in collaboration with experienced instrumental teachers, providing information about the selected composers and works as well as useful teaching or practice notes with plenty of practice ideas and…
Developing A Flexible Piano Technique: Hal Leonard Webinar
Piano technique can be problematic for many students. Questions surrounding this aspect of piano playing are more frequent than any other in my experience, and this is certainly true in my Adult Piano Returner Facebook group: if you have a Facebook account but have yet to discover this group which now has 31,000 members, click…
Snapchats Duets & Trios recorded by Christopher Norton
Snapchats Duets & Trios is a series of four books for those students who enjoy ensemble playing, that is, playing with either one or two other pianists; piano duets are for four hands whereas trios are for six. Written with enjoyment and fun in mind, Snapchats is a progressive or graded series. The beginners book,…
A Keynote Speech and an Asia-Pacific Adventure
On June 29th I embarked on my largest and certainly longest book tour to date. This one had taken considerable preparation and financial support from both Schott Music and Hal Leonard Australia. These trips are usually fun, inspiring, fascinating and educational, and this Australasian extravaganza was nothing short of amazing. The tour started in Singapore…
Asia-Pacific Book Tour
This weekend marks the start of my longest and largest ever book tour and I’ll be visiting Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong. I’ve undertaken many tours since the publication of my first series for Schott back in 2017. They are always a lot of fun, very engaging, and a great opportunity to connect with teachers…
Ghostly Piano Tales: New Music for the Elementary Pianist
The Occult I wrote Ghostly Piano Tales nearly two years ago after becoming increasingly fascinated by the stories behind ghostly legends. I’ve always been interested in the occult, having experienced the supernatural at work. Most memorable was a surprise ‘sighting’ during a rehearsal at a medieval church in London around 25 years ago. I’d gone…
World Piano Day 2024: Why play the piano?
A very happy ‘World Piano Day’ to all piano lovers around the world. We celebrate today because it’s the eighty-eighth day of the year, corresponding to the piano’s eighty-eight keys. Piano Day provides the perfect opportunity to evaluate why we play the instrument and what makes it the perfect hobby. In my Facebook group, Adult…
The Mature Pianist: Interview
I was recently interviewed about the value and benefit of learning the piano later in life. Many students play as children taking up the hobby again years later, whilst others learn from scratch. Is it a good idea? Can you succeed as an adult learner? Is anyone ever too old to play the piano? Here…
Three-Part Webinar for Pianist Magazine
I’ve been contributing articles to Pianist Magazine for over 10 years. During that time I’ve written an elementary ‘How-To-Play’ column—over 60 in total—for each issue and have composed an elementary piano piece—just over 15 so far—as part of the piano score section. I’ve also contributed regularly to Pianist’s blog, writing a series of ‘5-tips’ style posts. It’s been…
Happy New Year 2024: The ‘Ideal’ Piano Teacher
Happy New Year At the beginning of a new year, it’s natural to take stock and consider our direction in life. I took a trip to Amsterdam for several days just before Christmas. I love my short trips. They provide the chance to get to know a place, soak up the atmosphere, the vibe, the…