Welcome to
The Piano Pedagogy PLayList
Be my guest each week as I share with you some of my favorite selections from the contemporary repertoire for developing pianists.
New episodes drop every Monday. Listen here, or subscribe via your favorite podcast provider.
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Ep. 6 – Cool Beans: Jazz, Pop, and Playfulness in Ben Crosland’s Piano Music
This week on the Piano Pedagogy Playlist, I dive into Cool Beans by English composer Ben Crosland — a fresh, pop-inspired collection of 12 graded pieces for early to late intermediate pianists. After years of hearing good things about this collection, I finally bought the digital download of Book One, sat down at the piano,…
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Ep 5: RCM Celebration Series Spotlight: Three Contemporary Pieces for Intermediate Students
The “Celebration Series” of repertoire books published by the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto have been a longtime favorite source of mine for discovering new pieces by living composers. Updated every seven years, I always find fresh pieces that eventually become old favorites. This week, I highlight three options for intermediate students from the…
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Ep. 4 : Hang On! Exploring Glenda Austin’s First Jazz Suite
This three-movement work by the prolific Glenda Austin exhibits all of the qualities that make her music so adored and valued- lyricism, expression, excitement, and with a touch of jazz. The Jazz Suite #1 could be a long-term project for an intermediate student, or split up the various movements between students in your studio and…
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Ep. 3 : Confidence Builders – Getting back on the bench
Students are slowly trickling back into their schools and back into our studios! In an ideal world, our pupils would have all diligently kept up with their piano studies through the summer, but we know that’s not always the case. This week I’m sharing four pieces by Australian composer Daniel McFarlane—fun, impressive-sounding works that are…
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Ep. 02 – Anxiety, keeps on tryin’ me…
This week we explore the fine art of making your students sweat (musically speaking). I’ll play two pieces that capture the fidgety, feelings of uncertainty that many of our students (and ourselves) experience heading into a new school year. First, the Anxiety Toccata by Scott Price, which doesn’t let up from the first note until the…
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Ep. 01 – The End of Summer, The Start of a New Podcast
I hear the cicadas. I’m seeing the back-to-school ads on TV. But let’s not say goodbye to summer just yet. On the innaugural episode of the podcast, we listen to three evocative pieces on the joys of summer and the melancholy of August. The three pieces by Martha Hill Duncan and are taken from her…