Piano Courses and Workshops

Melanie has tutored a wide range of piano courses, from Jackdaws Music Education Trust, Finchcocks Music, Piano Week, the Overseas Masters Winter Piano Academy held at the Yehudi Menuhin School, and The Thinking Pianist, to the Montecatini Piano Festival (Italy) and Chetham’s International Piano Summer School.

Over the past few years, she has directed a bilingual community piano project in Germany, giving workshops and classes at the IKM Gelsenkirchen, near Düsseldorf. 

Recent pedagogy presentations: the 2017 UCSI University Piano Pedagogy Conference in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), the 2019 Frankfurt Musik Messe (Germany), and in Jakarta (Indonesia) at the I-MEC, where she gave a week of classes and workshops for teachers and students as part of the 2019 – 2020 Cantata Youth Music Scheme. In 2023, she delivered workshops for teachers and classes for students in Dubai, at the Centre For Musical Arts and at Dubai College, and in Oman at the Classic Music and Arts Centre in Muscat. 

Workshop programmes in the Far East specifically for teachers include presentations at the Cristofori Music School, Kawai Music School, and The Musique Loft, all based in Singapore, and the Sinfonia Music Studio (Johor Bahru), Encore Music Centre (Melaka) and Gloria Musica School of Music (Kuala Lumpur), all based in Malaysia, and the Tom Lee Academy and Parsons Music School, both based in Hong Kong. During 2018, Melanie undertook a book tour of Malaysia and Indonesia for Schott Music, presenting workshops and lectures in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and Surabaya.

More recently, she has directed the Chetham’s Piano Teachers’ Course at the Chetham’s International Piano Summer School (U.K.) and presented a seminar focusing on piano exams to teachers at the U.S.-based Online Piano Global Summit as well as an online piano technique workshop for the Music Teachers’ Association of South Australia.

In 2023, Melanie directed an ongoing two-day teacher training programme at the Cristofori Music School in Singapore, and gave further workshops for teachers and classes for students at the Tom Lee Academy in Hong Kong. 

During early 2024, she returned to Bangkok to adjudicate piano competition classes and deliver a workshop for teachers, and, later in the year will continue her work with the IKM in Germany, hosting classes and private lessons for students near Düsseldorf. An extended tour of Australia and the Far East is planned for July, to include three key-note presentations at the 2024 Australian Piano Pedagogy Conference to be held in Melbourne, as well as further workshops in Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Sydney.

Online Courses and Programmes

Online piano programmes for piano teachers include the Tom Lee Academy in Hong Kong as well as a series of online classes for the First Education Group based in Hong Kong and Macau. Recent online tutoring includes courses for Jackdaws Music Education Trust and the London Chinese Children’s Ensemble. During 2024, Melanie will hold online public and private classes and lessons for Japanese music school, And Vision, which is based in Tokyo. In early 2024, she hosted three webinars for Pianist Magazine. 

Melanie runs an online piano studio from her home, working with advanced students and piano teachers, offering private one-to-one lessons, virtual performance platforms, and master classes.

Piano Faculty Teaching 

Previous piano teaching positions: Royal Holloway University of London, Reading University, Royal College of Music Junior Department, and Wycombe Abbey School.

Melanie has considerable experience working with students at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.   

Adjudicating and Examining

Melanie adjudicates for the British and International Federation of Festivals, acting as a mentor and coach for BIFF adjudicators, and has also examined for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM), undertaking both the graded and diploma exams. She has been a member of exam panels for both undergraduate (BMus) and postgraduate (MA/MMus) final recital examinations at Reading University and Royal Holloway (London) University.

Student Success

Student successes include competition prize-winners: BBC Young Musician 2020 (piano finalist), Platinum, Gold, and Silver Medal winners at the London Youth Piano Competition (2022 & 2023), and at the Montecatini International Piano Competition (2021 & 2023).

Current and former students have performed at some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, have won undergraduate and postgraduate places (including scholarships) to study the piano at various music conservatoires, and have obtained a wide range of piano diplomas.

Teaching Videos

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