Charlotte was born in Reading, UK in 1974 into a family with no musical inclinations whatsoever. She began having lessons at the age of 6 purely by chance after a professional musician, having heard her bashing about on an old piano, told her parents, “That child is musical. You ought to get her some lessons."  She’s now very glad they did!

Charlotte spent most of her younger years involved in music, although rather than seriously pursuing her piano studies it mostly involved singing in choirs, playing the flute in an orchestra, and playing the guitar extremely badly in a teenage band. However, she did manage to fit in her ABRSM grade 8 piano at the age of 15. Charlotte went on to do a Bachelor of Music degree at Royal Holloway, University of London, from where she won a scholarship to study at Sweet Briar College, Virginia, USA in addition to her degree studies.

After graduating from university, Charlotte needed a break from music and spent 5 years working in financial services. Shortly after taking her last financial exam she decided that the work really was too dull, and she wanted to go back to music.  Having taught piano through school and university, she realized she enjoyed it far more than finance and decided to build a career out of it. She now runs a busy teaching practice, giving piano lessons mostly to adults but also a handful of children.

She was awarded the Diploma of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in piano performance in 2003 as she started to build up her teaching business. For the last couple of years Charlotte has been taking lessons from Pamela Chilvers (herself a pupil of Fanny Waterman) and has transformed Charlotte's playing beyond all recognition. After learning in this time what proper practicing actually is (it only took 25 years!), in February 2008  Charlotte bought a 5ft 10 Boston grand piano, which is her pride and joy as well as a huge source of inspiration. She is planning to take her Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music exam in piano performance in 2009.

Charlotte lives with her partner in Reading. As most of her time now is spent teaching and fitting in five hours of practicing a day, she doesn’t have time for many non-piano related interests. However, being the type who gets bored if she’s not learning something new, Charlotte taught herself to become reasonably fluent in German, and after three years of training has also done some work as a nutritional therapist. In a token gesture to keeping fit, she goes swimming twice a week.  Charlotte is also learning to sing, which she enjoys immensely, but she says it will never replace the piano!


Recordings