composer spotlight Archives

by Tim Topham

In this episode, Karen Marshall shares her story of returning to studying and teaching music after succeeding in a career in marketing and public relations. Well-loved as a composer and best-selling author, Karen has also trained extensively in the area of special needs.  In addition to learning about her teaching journey, we discuss Karen’s compositions, some of ... TC239: Hiding Your Musical Veggies with Composer Karen Marshall

by Tim Topham

Composer Christopher Norton joins us to talk about exploring improv and how it relates to his compositional writing. We take a look at his latest writing, and how teachers can explore improv styles through his special accompaniments. Christopher is a prolific composer, a coach for private teachers, and gives masterclasses all over the world. His ... TC229: Exploring Styles through Improv with Christopher Norton

by Tim Topham

In today’s episode, we’re speaking with one of Australia’s most-loved composers, Kerin Bailey. Kerin shares his musical background, influence of jazz music, and thoughts about effective ways to teach jazz skills and chord progressions to students. We’ll also hear Kerin demonstrate on the piano from his improv system for teaching, and give you some takeaways ... TC220: Jazz Perspectives with Composer Kerin Bailey

by Tim Topham

Phillip Keveren has created some of my favourite arrangements for piano. All of his pieces are beautiful, pianistic and playable. As he points out in the interview, you don’t want a student doesn’t want to be working on a pop arrangement for 6 months, and his work makes these pieces students want to play accessible to ... CPTP125: 25 Years of Composing and Arranging with Phillip Keveren