BESPOKE PIANO TUITION

Cornwall Gardens, SW7

 

30 Years Exclusive Piano Tuition

Exclusively on a Yamaha Grand Piano

                                            

Testimonials:

‘Anna is an excellent music teacher. She is very patient and focused. On her sessions she establishes a joyful and productive learning relationship with her students. Anna’s enthusiastic attitude and her obvious love of music has made our son very eager to learn piano, and he progresses from week to week. He always looks forward to her lessons and talks about it happily. I have every confidence in her professional knowledge and skills as a musician and teacher. Highly recommended!

Svetlana Gushchina, mother of 7 year old student

 

‘I am very happy with the piano lessons that Anna has been giving my daughter. Anna has shown deep knowledge of piano teaching through her great ability to spot strengths and weaknesses, followed up by her clear explanations of issues and specific demonstrations and instructions on how to improve. Anna helps my daughter understand the context of the pieces and develop own thoughts on the interpretation, learning not just to play the right notes but to communicate a piece of music.’

Hoa Nguyen, mother of 14 year-old student

 

Teaching experience:

My first piano student was film producer's Bernardo Bertolucci's son, Ugo, when I was only eighteen and studying piano in Rome and at the Accademia Chigiana, in Siena, (Tuscany), with Guido Agosti. In my twenties, when I was studying in Paris, I taught at the Conservatoire de Courbevoie and the École de musique de Rueil-Malmaison. In my native Spain, I have taught at the Conservatorio de Toledo, Juventudes Musicales de Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) and Centro de estudios musicales, in Bilbao. In London, I have taught in a school, in adult education and privately.

Piano studies:

I obtained a Piano teaching Diploma, with first class honors at the Conservatorio J. C. Arriaga, in Bilbao (Spain) where I also attended a German school for fourteen years. I continued my piano studies with maestro Agosti, for two years, in Rome (and learned Italian and Italian painting, in my spare time). Age twenty, I moved to Paris, where I was a pupil of Pierre Sancan at the Salle Pleyel and at the Academie Internationale d' Été, in Nice. I also studied at the École Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot, with France Clidat. Alberto Neuman, (a pupil of Michelangeli), was my mentor in Paris. In 1990, I spent eighteen months in Moscow to study with pianist E. G. Ginsburg, the daughter of the famous Grigory Ginsburg.

Maria Curcio, Jill Crossland and Andrew Zolinsky were my teachers in London, where I gained a Masters (Perf), a Bachelor of Music (Hons) and a Licenciateship in Pianoforte from West London University, where I obtained the Raphael Terroni Piano Prize. I did the Dalcroze training course at the RNCM, in Manchester. I also have a Certificate in Piano Pedagogy (EPTA), two certificates of Practical Psychology for Music Teaching (MMM, London), a Teaching Certificate, City & Guilds, and a Music-Medicine Diploma, recognised by BPAM. 

Teaching philosophy:

I am an inspirational and dedicated piano teacher with extensive professional experience, motivating students and developing their musical abilities. I teach children (aged 4 upward) and adults, beginners to advanced level, with a creative approach. I prepare and structure lessons to meet their individual needs, enlarging students' repertoire (solo and duet) and improving their quality of listening and developing their technique (scales, arpeggios, exercises, etudes). I teach in accordance to different Board grade exams and organise informal concerts in front of other students and parents. I prepare students for exams and piano competitions, when applicable, but my main aim is that all my students enjoy music, love playing the piano and use their full potential. Piano lessons should be fun.

 

I use a lot of psychology in my teaching to empower and motivate my students. I am also a Licensed Practitioner of NLP and EFT (emotional freedom technique). I use powerful NLP strategies and tools in my teaching to deal with exam and concert preparation. My philosophy is all about teaching students how to learn and introducing them to new possibilities: making the impossible possible!

Ability to teach students with special needs:
I have some experience of working with autistic children (mostly Asperger's syndrome). I attended a one-year course at the University of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid, Spain),'teaching music to children with special needs' and a music therapy workshop at the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre, in London. In 2004, I did a Music Medicine Therapy Diploma course, organised by Prof. Carola Grindea and ISSTIP (International Society for the Study of Tension in Performance and recognised by BPAM (British Performing Arts Medicine Trust).

 

Piano concerts:

I have performed at the Salle M. Ravel, in Paris, the Festival du Pays de Caux, in Normandy, the Sociedad Filarmónica, in Bilbao, the Fundación Juan March and the Sociedad del Real Ateneo, in Madrid and in Italy, the Festivale di Avezzano and the Castello Sforzesco, in Milan, part of the Milan Expo 2015. In London, I have given lunchtime concerts, in St. George's Hanover Square, St. John's Notting Hill, St. Nicolas (Chiswick), St. Bride's Fleet Street, St Olave's, St. Anne (Kew), St. Michael and All Angels (Chiswick), mostly for charities. I also play regularly in Spain. My next concerts are in Madrid, Prague and Istanbul.

Ideal piano school:
The great pianist Claudio Arrau said to my teacher Alberto Neuman, that in his ideal piano school, dance would certainly have to be taught, not just piano. Arrau explained: 'Hay que danzar la partitura' (One has to dance the score.) My ideal piano school would have to be holistic: everything from Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique to Tai Chi, yoga, meditation, NLP, nutrition and writing. As Germans say: 'Why make things easy, when you can make them difficult''…