Catherine

Catherine is a freelance cellist based in Central London. She graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2019 with a BA (Hons) in Music, and with a Masters in Performance at the Royal Academy of Music in 2022. She has a lot of teaching experience and currently teaches cello at City Junior School and the City of London School for Girls.

In 2020, Catherine began working as a peripatetic cello teacher in Berkshire. She now teaches cello privately, teaching students of a range of ages and abilities. She also works as a Cello Fellow for the Royal Academy of Music. She makes her lessons fun and engaging. She can tailor lessons to suit each student`s individual interests, and has taken a course in leadership skills at the Royal Academy of Music, so knows how to give clear and precise instructions. She also received a teaching qualification at Academy known as the Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music. She has got extensive online teaching experience, teaching both one-to-one, and co-leading ensemble rehearsals over Zoom. She also has a good level of knowledge about teaching theory and musicianship skills. In the past, she has worked as a classroom music teacher in a primary school.

Catherine started cello lessons at the age of three. Her first teacher was Penny Heath, who taught her until she achieved her grade 8 with distinction in 2012. After this Catherine joined the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music and got her grade 8 in music theory.

Catherine was awarded a music scholarship to Farnborough Sixth Form College, and went on to study Music at Cambridge University, where she held an Instrumental Award Scheme scholarship and began having cello lessons with Felix Schmidt at the Royal Academy of Music through the CAMRAM scheme, a joint scheme between Cambridge and Academy. Catherine was lucky enough to have the benefit of being taught by Felix Schmidt for a number of years. He is a great mentor, who is encouraging and supportive of all of his students. He is a virtuoso player who has an outstanding ability to explain his technique and ideas clearly, and in unique and creative ways, which makes it easy for his students to understand and implement them. Catherine now aspires to this in her own teaching.

Catherine chose to study music at university because, whilst she loved playing cello, she wanted to learn more about the world and music’s place in it today. She took courses such as Ethnomusicology and Decolonising the Ear and developed an interest in music from around the world and the ways it can have an impact on and reflect society.

Catherine recently completed her postgraduate degree at the Royal Academy of Music. It was there that her interest in music expanded to encompass a wider variety of styles and genres. She worked with composition students at Academy to perform their music, including Kirsten Strom’s Pour Esperance for unaccompanied cello. She also became more interested in music from around the world and performed Contramarea, by the Costa Rican band Malpais, with her band Goodenough Unplugged. She worked with this group on pop and rock music too, including pieces such as Nothing Else Matters by Metallica and Heal The World by Michael Jackson. Catherine also learned a selection of pieces from Wood Works with her string quartet. These are arrangements of Danish folk tunes created by the Danish String Quartet.

Inspired by a talk given by the pianist and composer Sarah Nicolls, in which she spoke about her work 12 Years, Catherine organised an environmentally themed concert at Goodenough College, which encompassed her interest in a wide variety of musical styles and genres, including pieces from Wood Works, Trees by Kirsten Strom, and pop songs including Mother Nature’s Son by the Beatles.

Catherine was selected for a public cello masterclass with Steven Doane at an annual conference of the European String Teachers Association. She has had masterclasses with other internationally acclaimed cellists including Louise Hopkins, Philippe Muller, Julian Lloyd Webber and Natalie Clein.

Catherine is a retired member of the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain and Surrey County Youth Orchestra. She has also been a member of the Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra and the Cambridge University Orchestra. More recently, she has played in concerts with the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra. She also regularly plays with the London Music Theatre Orchestra.

Availability: Flexible

Willing to travel: 15 miles

Experience: Catherine has been teaching cello since September 2020. She teaches students of a range of ages and abilities and makes her lessons fun and engaging. She can tailor lessons to suit each student`s individual interests.

DBS Check: Yes

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