A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of judging the Pianist magazine Composing Competition. I’ve done this really fun ‘job’ for the past five years alongside my superb colleagues and fellow judges, owner of The Piano Shop Kent, Nigel Scaife, Presto Music’s Product Manager, Matthew Ash, and, of course, Pianist magazine editor, Erica Worth….
Tag: Female Composers
Piano Pedagogy Spotlight: An Interview with Chenyin Li – Part 3
This post is Part 3 of my Piano Pedagogy Spotlight interview series with Chinese concert pianist and piano professor Chenyin Li. In this article, we discuss Chenyin’s performing career. Tell us about your current performing activities. Do you play mostly solo recitals or concerti? Do you have a preference? At the moment I perform mostly…
Margaret Lyell and her Piano Concerto Part 4: Julian Jacobson
Pianist and teacher Julian Jacobson has written this post which marks the fourth in a series dedicated to the piano concerto composed by his mother Margaret Lyell. Julian will be performing the piece tomorrow night in Birmingham: to find out more and purchase your ticket to this event, click here. And so the abstract score…
Margaret Lyell and her Piano Concerto Part 2: Julian Jacobson
This post is the second in a series written by pianist and teacher Julian Jacobson. These articles are dedicated to the music, and, more specifically, the Piano Concerto written by his mother Margaret Lyell. Around 1935 my mother returned to London and joined the staff of J Curwen & Sons, of which my father Maurice…
Margaret Lyell and her Piano Concerto Part 1: Julian Jacobson
Pianist and teacher Julian Jacobson is my guest writer for this bank holiday post. Julian is no stranger to my blog having written many interesting and informative articles and several guest series. This new series will focus on his mother Margaret Lyell (pictured above), and more specifically, her piano music. As a musician and writer…
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…
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…
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…
Women Composers – A Graded Anthology For Piano: An Interview
A few months ago, I gave an interview for pianist and writer Rhonda Rizzo. This post was published on her blog No Dead Guys. Rhonda writes and publishes a wide variety of articles relating to piano playing and she also features many guest posts. This written interview focused on my new anthology, Women Composers –…
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…
RSL Classical Piano Exams
It’s generally acknowledged that the UK music exam landscape is dominated by three major examination boards; ABRSM (The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music), Trinity College London, and the London College of Music Exams. These organisations have been around for many years and have garnered quite a following. Therefore a new exam board…
Piano Music by Women
Over the past few months, musicians have been carefully rethinking their work. The pandemic has forced artists to develop in a completely new direction. The internet has proved a splendid alternative platform. We have witnessed new online concert series’, master classes, workshops, and for teachers, copious online lessons. I’ve enjoyed performances from international artists, many…