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.
First Repertoire For Little Pianists Webinar
I will be presenting a webinar for the Willis Music Company later this week. This webinar may interest those with young students. It may also appeal to those who have just started learning to play the piano. The presentation will focus on my new two-book series. It is titled First Repertoire For Little Pianists. This…
World Piano Day 2022
Happy World Piano Day! As we celebrate this wonderful instrument, I’m sure you’ll be aware of the copious online events and articles commemorating the 2022 Piano Day. As part of the celebrations, I participated in an interview for the renowned Twinkl education site. This site specialises in offering online educational resources for school children, teachers,…
First Repertoire For Little Pianists
I first started teaching the piano at the age of fifteen – far too young, many would say, and they’d be right! Encouraged by my teacher, who ran a piano school, I often taught the school’s younger students. I was always interested to discover various beginners’ methods. My first teacher used her own method. Once…
Women Composers – A Graded Anthology For Piano
I’m delighted to introduce my three-book piano series: Women Composers – A Graded Anthology For Piano (Schott Music). This series was published in February/March 2022 and was one of my lockdown projects. Schott and I worked on these publications over a significant period and I’m happy to say that this series won a Presto Music…
Snapchats Duets & Trios: New recordings by Christopher Norton
Snapchats was originally a collection of short piano duets which was published a few years ago. The volume was republished and updated in 2019, with the inclusion of extra duets and piano trios. This new version has proved popular with both children and adult students and I always enjoy using them in my own sight-reading…
Happy New Year: 10 Years Blogging
I hope you have enjoyed a relaxing festive holiday and I’d like to wish you all a very Happy New Year. Tenth Anniversary 2022 is an important year for this blog, because on January 28th, it will celebrate its tenth anniversary. When I started this ‘project’ back in 2012, I was in a very different…
Happy Holidays 2021
We’ve almost come to the end of another year. For most, 2021 will surely be one to forget, marred with lockdowns and financial uncertainty. We can only hope that 2022 may offer us all a safe pathway out of this dreadful pandemic. As always, I am grateful to you for your support, and for reading…
2021 Online Global Piano Summit II
The 2021 Online Global Piano Summit was inaugurated last year and is returning by popular demand. The founding members, American concert pianist and Professor of Piano at Peabody Institute Dr. Steven Spooner and Chinese concert pianist Dr. Mei Li, are also co-founders of the International Institute for Piano Artistry. It hosts events like the Chicago…
London College of Music Pre-Grade 1 Piano Exam Syllabus
I’m delighted to have written, compiled and annotated the new London College of Music Exams Pre-Grade 1 2021 – 2025 syllabus. I also worked on the Grade 1 – 8 2021 – 2025 piano syllabus, too, selecting some of the repertoire as well as writing many of the performance notes, as I had done for…
Chetham’s International Piano Summer School 2021
I can clearly recall the first time I was made aware of Chetham’s International Piano Summer School. A friend had participated as a student and had waxed lyrical about the bountiful facets she had encountered; the high calibre artists and teachers on the faculty, the opportunity to eavesdrop on lessons and forge new piano friendships,…
Lost in Thought: Practice Tips
The following post was written for Schott’s magazine üben e musizieren, where it’s been published in the most recent edition. The article is a veritable ‘How-To-Play’ of my little piece ‘Lost in Thought’, which is the first piece in a collection entitled No Words Necessary. I’ve published the English version below, but you can click on…
An Angel’s Footsteps: A Birthday Gift
Today is my birthday, and I want to offer a birthday gift as part of the celebrations, which are certainly low-key this year, as might be expected! For those who teach the piano, or are just learning to play, I hope this free download will provide useful repertoire material. I wrote ‘An Angel’s Footsteps’ a…