About Our School
Our Music School was established in 1988 and since then has provided expert piano tuition delivered by experienced professionals with teaching diplomas from The Royal College of Music and Trinity College London
Teacher
Andrew Smith BA (Hons)
ARCM (Teachers)
FISM
Andrew has been based in Manchester since 1996 and currently teaches piano at the Altrincham Music School which he co-owns. He has 40 years teaching experience across all age ranges and has undertaken work as accompanist, composer and arranger. He has been involved in teacher training and development across the country with various organisations. He joined Trinity College London in 2004 and has examined extensively throughout the UK and abroad, examining Trinity diplomas, classical and jazz grade exams and the popular Rock and Pop syllabus. At Leicester University he studied piano with James Walker and Marlene Fleet and was awarded a scholarship to travel to Poland for the Warsaw Contemporary Music Festival. Shortly afterwards he became an Associate of the Royal College of Music and began his teaching career at Bilton Grange and Rugby School. He then spent nine years running music departments in two large international schools in Cairo and performed extensively within Egypt as well as teaching undergraduates at the Cairo Conservatoire. Before returning to the UK he took up a teaching position in a music school in Iceland and enjoyed playing in a saxophone quartet. He is a member of the European Piano Teachers Association.
Teacher
Karen Ward LTCL (Teachers)
MISM
Karen, based in Southport, has taught in the Manchester area since 1999 where she currently teaches piano at Altrincham Music School where she is a co-owner. In her 35 year teaching career she has taught across all age ranges particularly focusing on the 5-7 year old age group. In addition she has been involved in presenting music workshops in primary schools nationwide as well as planning and delivering initial teacher training, follow-up seminars and quality assuring the work of other teachers.
Karen has taught in both the public and private sectors in various schools and music schools throughout the North West as well as owning and running her own schools. More recently, she has taken the responsibility for the co-ordination of music in two primary schools in the Lancashire and Sefton areas delivering whole class music to KS1 and KS2 using Kodaly pedagogy and methodology with 'Voices Foundation' techniques. She is a Licentiate of Trinity College London.