I am currently working with eight advanced instrumentalists preparing for ARSM, DipABRSM, LRSM and LTCM diplomas.  The objectives which we discuss and agree vary as widely as their ages and levels of experience: from high-potential performers of just 13 years, to long-standing heads of secondary and sixth form music departments.   Meetings and coaching sessions may be weekly, fortnightly or monthly to meet different needs and typically involve:

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• exploring repertoire which fits particular musical interests and which will enable a performer to showcase their particular skills, while developing their musicianship still further.

• compiling suitably varied programmes for recitals, auditions and diploma-level examinations in musical performance, sometimes to fit in with a theme or specific brief.

• analysing the music which performers have selected to inform their interpretation to the score, balancing their personal intentions with established performance practice of baroque, classical, romantic and twentieth-century repertoire. 

• understanding the ensemble challenges of chosen repertoire, and building a strong collaboration between instrumentalist and accompanist.

• discussing the challenges of communicating particular works to a live audience and ways in which the performer can establish rapport, generate expectations as the music unfolds through time.

• developing rehearsal techniques for an effective performance of music in recitals lasting from 30 minutes to an hour.

• researching and criticising programme notes aimed at a well-informed but general audience with wide-ranging musical interests.

• preparing for lines of questioning in a viva-voca examination at under-graduate or post-graduate level (for diplomas beyond ARSM or examinations for the degrees of BMus and equivalents).

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