Teacher

Teaching has become increasingly central to my work over the last seven years. I enjoy interacting with students and the creativity that is required to adapt to each situation.

Instrumental Teaching

  • Piano and Organ teaching at Sawston Village College and the Perse School, Cambridge
  • Harpsichord and organ teaching for undergraduates at Cambridge University, since 2010

Academic Teaching

  • Appointed Affiliated Lecturer and member of the Faculty Board and Degree Committees at the Faculty of Music, Cambridge University, 2014
  • Director of Studies in Music at Queens’ College, Cambridge, 2011 to 2015
  • Employed as a supervisor (one-to-one and small group teaching): 1993 to present

“My creative approach to difficult subjects has been rated highly in student feedback.”

Overall responsibility:

  • The Birth of the Orchestra: historical course, viewing instrumental ensembles from 1580 to 1770 from a variety of perspectives (organological, social, ‘taxonomic’) and dealing with historiographical issues.
  • Keyboard Skills: practical course, developing skills in harmonisation, figured bass, score reading and transposition.
  • Fugue: technical course, demonstrating how to write a fugue, incorporating 18th-century fugal theory and teaching methods and consideration of 20th-century fugal writing.

Guest lectures:

  • Historically informed performance (for Introduction to Performance Studies)
  • French Baroque continuo style (for Advanced Keyboard Skills)
  • Stylistic composition: pre-1750 options (for Advanced Tonal Skills) demonstrating approaches to the composition of a 16th-century mass, and a Baroque cantata and concerto
  • Performing Purcell (for MMus Choral Studies): illustrating the use of historical sources when preparing a performance of a Purcell ode or symphony anthem

In addition to my own courses, I have acted as an examiner for the Recital Course (harpsichord, piano and Choral Performance options) and have been a member of the 1A Exam Committee and the Faculty Board; I have also given outreach seminars.

As Director of Studies in Music at Queens’ College, Cambridge, between 2011 and 2015, I taught a minimum of 80 hours per year, one-to-one and in small groups; I currently supervise on a freelance basis. In addition to my own courses, I supervise for:

  • 1A Harmony and Counterpoint
  • Notation Portfolio
  • Dissertation
  • Choral Conducting

For the Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge

Lecturing

  • 2014 Historical course: ‘The Birth of the Orchestra’ (2nd-year undergraduate course)
  • 2013– Technical course: ‘Fugue’ (2nd and 3rd-year undergraduate course)
  • 2015– Practical course: ‘Keyboard Skills’ (1st-year undergraduate course)
  • 2014 ‘Performing Purcell’, lecture-seminar MMus in Choral Studies (graduate course)
  • 2014 ‘Eighteenth-century French continuo style’, Advanced Keyboard Skills (3rd-year)
  • 2015 ‘Historically-Informed Performance’ (for 2nd-year undergraduate course)
  • 2015 ‘Stylistic Composition: pre-1750 options’ (for 3rd-year undergraduate course)

Examining

  • 2015 Member of the Part 1A Exam Committee
  • 2015 Dissertation (3rd-year course)
  • 2015 Choral Performance (3rd-year course)
  • 2015 Recital (3rd-year course)
  • 2015 The Birth of the Orchestra (2nd-year course)
  • 2015 Style composition (2nd-year course)
  • 2014- Fugue (3rd-year course)
  • 2013 Assessor, 2nd-year review of PhD student (18th-century Keyboard technique in German- speaking countries)
  • 2013– Fugue (1st and 2nd-year courses)

Teaching

One to one and group supervisions

  • First-year course: Harmony and Counterpoint (since 2010)
  • Keyboard Skills (1995 to 1997; 2010 to present)
  • Second-year course: Fugue (2010 to present)
  • Keyboard Skills (2010 to present)
  • Debussy songs (1993)
  • Musical textures and procedures (1993)
  • Third-year course: Notation Portfolio (2014)
  • Dissertation (2013 to present)
  • Fugue (2011 to present)
  • Advanced Keyboard (2014)
  • MMus Introduction to GB-Cfm MS 88 (at the Fitzwilliam Museum)
  • Choral conducting (2014 to present)

Other

Outreach: ‘Historically-Informed Performance’, seminar for school leavers (2014 & 2015 )

Admissions interviews:  Director of Studies in Music, Queens’ College (2011); second interviewer for organ scholarship candidates (2012)

Course tutor: ‘Understanding Music: Elements, Techniques and Styles’ (A214) at  Open University Summer School, Durham (2009-2010)