I believe that the teacher’s main task is to awaken a pupil’s interest and love for the subject being taught. When a pupil develops a sense of excitement and embarks on a road of discovery, he or she will be driven to unearth the incredible treasures hidden in music by practising more as well as learning away from the piano by going to concerts, reading about music history, performers, styles of performance and much more in order to gain a better understanding and therefore reach a higher level of enjoyment.

To put the inner functionings of tuition into a nutshell – discovering the world of music, learning to play the piano and acquiring a degree of excellence can be an enjoyable experience and a great source of joy but requires a disciplined approach as well as a certain degree of commitment and determination from the student. If you really want to be able to do something and decide to do it then you will be able to. As Johann Sebastian Bach famously said, “What I have achieved by industry and practice, anyone else with tolerable natural gift and ability can also achieve.” I would not take this too literally but there is a grain of truth in it.

With 18 years of experience, I have developed my own piano teaching curriculum and pedagogical system which is grounded in the Russian, German, French, and British schools of pianism and is enriched with early keyboard studies (harpsichord/clavichord). While my teaching style does accommodate preparation for taking exams, playing in competitions, concerts etc I am primarily concerned with the development of a functional technique and skills as well as the formation of an extensive repertoire and the acquisition of the ability to read music with ease. I consider it my primary task to not only provide instructions in order to give pupils a craft but to turn them into individual independent thinkers, musicians seeking a deeper meaning in music and the connections with other arts, literature, philosophy, religion (where applicable) etc. I see my pupils as holistic human beings who can learn to develop a real interest in music and communicate as well as express themselves through music by acquiring technical proficiency with the necessary theoretical/analytical/historical background knowledge tools, applying them to a search for a deeper understanding.