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.
Seasons Greetings 2023
Wishing you and your loved ones a very happy, peaceful, and splendid Holiday Season The winter holiday season is upon us once again, and I hope it provides us all with the opportunity to relax, rest, and reflect. This is my final post of the year, and I’d like to thank everyone who takes the…
Popular Posts of 2023
As the year draws to a close, those of us who write blogs are partial to sharing the most popular, or most ‘read’, articles of that year. I’ve done this before but not with any regularity. However, this particular year is a little different as my most ‘popular’ posts have changed. In 2023, the article…
Snapchats Duets & Trios: Beginners & Book 1, 2 & 3
Snapchats Duets & Trios is published by 80 Days Publishing, a relatively new publishing house owned and founded by composer Christopher Norton and Andrew Jones. The latest addition to the Snapchats family is the new beginners book: Snapchats Duets and Trios for Beginners (see image above). This volume contains 25 duets and trios: 20 duets…
The Piano Teacher Interview
I’m excited to be a keynote speaker at the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference 2024, which will be held at Monash University in Melbourne from the 8th – 12th July. I’ll be giving three presentations at this conference. I will also visit several other cities in Australia. Additionally, I will return to Singapore and Hong Kong…
Lucky Charms For Piano and Harp
Lucky Charms is a collection of 21 elementary piano pieces. Published by 80 Days Publishing, the collection consists of works from preparatory (or pre-Grade 1) to approximately Grade 2 standard of the British exam board syllabus levels. Many of the pieces were previously written for Pianist Magazine, for whom I write an elementary piano piece…
The Schott Student Edition Series
I’m pleased to be contributing to the Schott Student Edition Series. Popular amongst teachers and students, this series is, first and foremost, intended with instrumental tuition in mind. Each book is edited in collaboration with experienced instrumental teachers, providing information about the selected composers and works as well as useful ‘Teaching Notes’ with plenty of…
Adult Piano Returners – A Group Celebration
Those who read this blog regularly will know that I host an increasingly popular Facebook Group called Adult Piano Returners (click on the group name to find out more). I started this group in September 2021 at the end of the pandemic as a way of connecting with adult pianists, and I also wanted to…
Far Eastern Adventures
I’ve just returned from my second trip to the Far East this year. I love these adventures to far-flung exotic destinations and I feel it a privilege to travel for my work. Despite having worked in Singapore and Hong Kong on numerous occasions, I hadn’t visited since just before the pandemic in 2019. One of…
Judging a Piano Festival in Thailand
During the past year I’ve been teaching at Royal Holloway, which is part of the University of London. Employed as an external faculty lecturer, I’ve been working with undergraduate and postgraduate students. Every Monday I took the bus to the campus, which isn’t far away from where I live in Windsor, Berkshire. One morning, during…
World Piano Day 2023
Happy World Piano Day to you all. Today is an annual worldwide event founded in 2015. It takes place on the 88th day of the year (and in 2023, it’s the 29th of March) due to the number of keys on a piano. Berlin-based pianist, composer, and producer Nils Frahm, who originally instigated the idea,…
International Women’s Week: Composing For Schott Music
Every year during March we celebrate the lives and work of women. Is this important? Yes, it is. Women in the workforce is still a relatively recent phenomenon, however, I feel that we finally have a platform from which to build meaningful and fulfilling careers. As you may have sensed if you are a regular…
Middle Eastern Odyssey
I’ve wanted to work in the Middle East for a while and have been busy hatching a suitable plan to present my books and workshops to teachers and students. Most countries in this part of the world are not known for their love of Western music education and it’s this relative indifference that caught my…