Archway Melodies

I’ve been a classroom music teacher who has trained bands, choirs and small ensembles with children aged between 3 and 14 years old. Teaching whole class recorder is a major interest of mine. Outside of the classroom I am also a performing violinist who has also, as a private teacher, taught violin. I married Tony, my pianist/composer husband, in 2011. He writes music, lots of it… from simple melodies, solos to small ensembles and full orchestral works. Together we perform live and to date, in the educational world, we have written no less than five school musicals as well as much music for recorder and percussion. We are a husband and wife team whose experiences in life, music and teaching have given us both different sets of skills that complement each other and make us more than the sum of our parts.

Kodaly, Orff and Suzuki have proven to be a most effective basis for my teaching. However, I also draw ideas from many different sources, compiling what works best for me and, of course, the children.

Back in 2008, long before I met him, Tony was the winner of the UK Songwriting Competition. His orchestral work “Twinkle Variations” (based in Twinkle, twinkle, little star) came top in the Instrumental section. This work was used as “The Alphabet Variations” by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra as part of their program to introduce the instruments of the orchestra to young people.

II have a B.Ed., receiving my Bachelor of Education from the University of Saskatchewan. I’m also a lifelong learner, enhancing my education and knowledge by listening and learning to those whose talent and knowledge I respect. I do however, sometimes willingly pay to be taught, and have attending various music courses over the years including Choral Conducting at Sherborne in the UK. Tony attended the Trinity College of Music in London, UK, which sounds really posh, until you find out he only went there as a teenager on Saturday’s, during term time. He is a graduate from the University of Life being mostly self-taught and learning a lot from listening, doing, experimenting and, of course, (so he says) the occasional mistake. :-)

One of our passions is playing duets together and have performed many times together in various venues, including a farmer’s field. I mentioned earlier that Tony is a composer and he wrote me a tune on the very day we met. He later tuned this tune into a 25-minute sonata, which we premiered at a concert of his own music. Luckily he has written much shorter/easier pieces and together we perform these, together with other delightful works. Tony writes music outside of the educational field as well, so if you want something original written please don’t hesitate to ask.