It’s been two years since Schott and I published our three-book series featuring music by women composers from over four centuries, Women Composers: A Graded Anthology for Piano. This publication has proved most popular, not only winning a Presto Music Award but, more importantly, reaching out to a new audience of pianists, whether they be…
Tag: Festivals and Competitions
A Master Class with Nikolai Lugansky
The Oxford Piano Festival is held annually in Oxford, UK. It is one of the few educational courses to film almost every session during their festival. This allows us to hear a wealth of extremely interesting piano classes given by renowned pianists. All of this is at our fingertips on YouTube. Russian pianist Nikolai Luganksy…
International Katherine Mansfield 100 Festival 2023
Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) is widely considered to be one of New Zealand’s most important modernist writers. Born and raised near Wellington, her father, Sir Harold Beauchamp, was the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand, her grandfather was a parliamentary electorate, and her cousin, Countess Elizabeth von Arnim, was also a well-known author. One of…
A Master Class with Stephen Kovacevich
It’s time for a masterclass and today’s public lesson was filmed at the Oxford Piano Festival last year. This recording was streamed live on August 4th and the video contains the entire class, which runs nearly three and a half hours in length. If like me, you’re a fan of observing piano lessons, you will…
Guildhall Young Artists Online – Preparing For Conservatoire Entry: A New Course
From September 2023, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London is offering an innovative new course for students. This advanced two-year online course is aimed at international musicians who are interested in studying for a degree at the Guildhall School or at any other UK music conservatoire. Students, who are of post Grade…
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…
A Master Class with Elisabeth Leonskaja
I hope you have time to relax and rejuvenate during this holiday period. I haven’t posted a masterclass for a while and I’ve missed them! Today’s class was recorded at the Oxford Piano Festival and was streamed live on July 31st 2022. Founded in 1999, this festival offers the opportunity for young pianists to work…
The 4th Montecatini International Piano Competition
Over the past few years, I have been fortunate to be a jury member at several international piano competitions. Most of these have been online, which, thanks to the pandemic, has started a new ‘trend’. There are clearly some disadvantages to hearing young pianists perform in this situation regarding sound and instrument quality, but, generally,…
New Piano Repertoire for the New Academic Year
It’s a new academic year and this means new piano repertoire. Today’s post focuses on educational piano repertoire which you may be interested in acquiring either for yourself or for your students. Earlier this month a new volume of Christmas music was released by US company Willis Music. I started working with Willis last year….
G. Henle Verlag Piano Competition 2022
Those who teach or play the piano will know the significance of G. Henle Verlag. Henle is a world-leading publishing house focusing on Urtext editions, that is, editions which solely remain true to the composer’s intentions. Based in Munich, Germany, this publishing house will be celebrating its 75th Anniversary next year, so do keep an…
A Master Class with Leif Ove Andsnes
This week’s post features the following master class given by Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. The class was recorded on September 3rd 2021 at the Riga Jurmala Academy. It features student Ilana Lode, who currently studies at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. The chosen repertoire is Chopin’s monumental Ballade No. 4 in F…
The London Youth Piano Competition 2022
Competitions have always been a popular fixture in music. Whether you agree with them or not, contests have taken place since the beginning of time, and it’s often the case that the ‘best’ person doesn’t necessarily win; music, being so subjective, is open to many interpretations and, often, beyond technical issues, it’s all a matter…