ANZCA (Australian and New Zealand Cultural Arts Limited) are a music examination board popular across Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand. Based in Australia, they have been operating since 1938. ANZCA offers comprehensive programmes for most instruments and this year they have just published a new piano syllabus. There are three syllabus…
Tag: Author Articles
The Art of Piano Education Awards and More…
April and May has been a busy time with some interesting work and the conclusion of projects which have been in the offing for a while. These have been satisfying and worthy endeavours and, as usual, I’ve loved my involvement with each one. During the last week of April I took a flight (on a…
Schott Student Edition: Scènes enfantines Op. 92 by Mélanie Bonis
This week marks the publication of my second volume highlighting the music of French late-Romantic composer Mélanie Bonis, or Mel-Bonis as she was often known. Book 1 was published in March and focuses on elementary pieces for children from the popular collection Album pour les tout-petits Op. 103, and you can find out more about…
Schott Student Edition: Album pour les tout-petits by Mélanie Bonis
I’ve been compiling and editing editions for the Schott student study series for a while and we have already published three volumes: click here to find out more. All my contributions to this series focus on highlighting music by female composers. I try to mix it up and combine the piano works of more well-known…
Chasm: a new recording by Maiko Mori
Just before lockdown I started writing several piano pieces for four pianist friends. There’s nothing I enjoy more than writing music for my fellow musicians because one can compose a ‘bespoke’ work specifically suited to their particular musical skills. All four pianists had heard some of my music performed during a concert held at a…
Music & Drama Education Expo 2025
I’m looking forward to the Music & Drama Education Expo in London next week. This two-day event is held every year and has been through several transformations since its inception twelve years ago. According to its website, the Expo consists of ‘a mix of practical workshops, CPD sessions, seminars and networking for music and drama…
Composer of the Month at TopMusic
2025 starts with a bang! During January, I’m ‘composer of the month’ at the TopMusic.co which is an educational organisation founded and run by Tim Topham, a music educator who I had the pleasure of meeting when I visited Australia last Summer. Earlier this week ten of my elementary piano pieces were published by TMS…
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,…