Piano & music theory tuition
in Mill Hill
Galery and videos
This page contains photos and videos representing my students progress and achievements. I wish I had time to update it more regularly. There is only a few videos here from those I have. They are at various levels and play different pieces. For a few students I created separate sub-galleries as well as It's Christmas gallery
Natalia's gallery
Radha Olivia - July 2018 - Grade 4
Radha Olivia's Grade 4 pieces.
Olivia is a very diligent student that listens and absorbs my advice and then reflects it in her independent work. It is sad she wasn't with me from the beginning and that she was pushed to her Grade 1 exam (in my opinion) with not enough prepared, or set hands. It took us a while to overpass that stage and start opening her musicality, but she is on a great pace discovering herself now, she instinctively understands harmony and dynamics of the piece she is playing. It is a great pleasure to teach her!
Well done Olivia on your success at your all exams. Especially well done with your Grade 4. Very hard work and loads of it! Never mind we expected it to be marked higher but please do not be put off by that. Your next success will only feel even more successful and I don't have a shadow of a doubt in your bright future!
July 2018, Arina
Arina's Grade 1 Piece
I always want to call Arina a living light bulb - she lights up the room when she comes in. Her lovely tender voice and laughter, her bright individuality and her personal take on everything that we do makes lessons with her a pleasure to carry out.
She would do with a little bit more concentration on what we do and flying in her dreams not to interfere with our lessons but I can't blame her on what makes her the way she is.
Well done with your first exam Arina, keep it up, practice at home a little bit more and we might have a shining star rising soon!
Julia - December 2016
Julia is absolutely fantastic little girl, very hard-working, musical and talented. She has recently passed her practical Grade 1 exam. All she lacks is a little bit of confidence and I really hope she will gain it with help of small family concerts and filming like this. I love working with Julia!
February 2014
This is Sayuri - she is 6 and at the time of the video and has been taking short lessons for about 6 monthsby then. Although we've missed about 5 or 6 weeks during this period (due to Sayuri's home being refurbished) she has already learned all tunes from the first book we were following. She was making a good progress and the only thing was that like everybody she needed to work a little bit harder and practice every day.
Sayuri is excellent at sight-reading. She is rather following the notes on the sheet than memorising the keys like many others do. She also loves singing along as she plays and that helps in learning too.
However I must say with regret that after publishing this video to my Facebook page in March 2014 Sayuri slowed her progress down dramaticaly, perhaps because of being overpraised with numerous compliments from her relatives. She stopped regular practicing for a while and it was quite hard to work with her. Until some point, when Sayuri's mother must have taken certain action and since then Sayuri has started working again and making further progress. I must be very carful with my compliments now but I hope she will never gets spoiled again! Sayuri is doing very well again and I really hope she will keep up that way!
November 2015
November 2015.
Sayuri has been taking short lessons for almost two years before we started preparing for an exam. There has been ups and downs (like with any child) but eventually she began working harder and started making a steady progress.
Then, since we changed to full lessons it's gone even faster. Sayuri has been working hard and here is a result: her Grade 1 has been passed with merits - good work! - carry on like that and please, keep up with home-work discipline! It will not be getting any easier but only harder and harder so the efforts must only increase too! Grade 2 must be acheved and passed with distinction!
This is a first performance of my very special student Catherine. She was only five and a half years old at the time. This is the first ever video I shot with my students so please excuse us – we both were a little nervous :-)
Catherine is a very bright and talented little girl. And also she is incredibly hard-working. She only begun taking her lessons in August 2013 and look what she achieved in only 15 weeks (the video was shot on 20 Nov 2013)! She is playing quite complex pieces using her both hands, she understands music dynamics and plays back sharp Forte and smooth Piano.
Like I said she is very bright little girl but it is extremely important as well that she is taking her lessons systematically – she has never cancelled her lesson even once, even though she is sometimes tired after school. Also it is just as important that she is working hard and doing her homework very thoroughly. I can tell that she is following my recommendations and practising every day.
So there she is - talent plus systematic hard work!
And here is Catherine again, one year down the line. She has just taken her first ABRSM grading exam. I never had a shadow of a doubt about her success - she is absolutely fantastic genius little girl. She went straight for the Grade 2 and passed it with distinction! 130 out of possible 150! Quite surprisingly the examiner hasn't given her all 150 but I think it was just due to the fact that it was her first ever exam as well as a first performance in a church which has that very unusual and so specific acoustic. Besides, the piano there as well - far from the easiest instrument to play. But never mind that - she has achieved a fantastic result and I am ever so proud for her! As I said Catherine is remarkably talented but also she has that amazing character both hard working and persistent, which made it possible to achieve that breath-taking progress in just about 15 months! She is a real diamond!
October 2014
My student Lucy has been taking my lessons for about 12 month at the time of shooting this video, most of the time quite regularly. Lucy could go for a grade 3 then if she wanted to, but she is enjoying the learning as it comes, without any milestones and exams. Being a little bit shy Lucy is not extremely enthusiastic about performing in public. And although we were planing to record another piece we have put it off for some time and I decided to publish at least this short duet which is by far not the most advanced piece that Lucy can play.
July 2014
Here are two short videos of myself playing two pieces I really love. Originally I didn't intend to make any videos of my own but my husband convinced me that watching me might encourage my students to work harder and perhaps make them love and understand music better.
I would like to ask you not to judge me too harshly - these videos are not any kind of performance nor did I made a lot of preparations to shot them. It is just my everyday practise that I have once decided to record.
So here they are: the first one called The After Day is written by the modern classical composer Yiruma. And the other one is a main theme from the classic soviet WWII spy movie "17 moments of spring" by composer Mickhael Tariverdiev. Both pieces are very romantic, there is a lot of quiet sorrow in one and epic drama in the other...