My experience with classical music began at the age of five when I started to imitate my mother’s playing of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”. This led my parents to take me to audition at the specialised music school for gifted children, where I was introduced to the prominent line of Russian Piano School. Many hours at the piano allowed me to start performing concerts from my second year of school, locally at first, gradually expanding the scope to solo and orchestra performances in many cities in Ukraine and abroad.

By age thirteen I had won two piano competitions and was invited to perform for Bill Clinton’s visit to Ukraine at which he stood up and shook my hand. These accomplishments are impressive from an adult’s point of view, but they were not so important to me as I went back to practise the very next day, because there were more competitions and concerts for which I had to prepare.

This was a hard life with a lot of pressure and responsibility. The reward for early success was… more practise.

There was one real reward: I was continuing to discover and understand music – something that motivates me to play and teach piano to this day.

While not everyone’s journey will be similar to mine, my goal is to lead my students to reveal the musical abilities they didn’t know they have, regardless of their age, current skill and commitment level.

I have spent many years developing the right methodology to ensure student’s success in each individual case.