Starr Meneely - Director and Principle Teacher. Starr is an accomplished pianist and music teacher. She believes in a holistic approach to music education, where each child is immersed in music as a language and art form that allows for broad creativity and deep understanding.

Teaching

Starr has been teaching for 28 years. She began teaching in high school with private piano students and two community children’s choirs that she founded and directed. She has experience teaching children’s theatre, choir, school classroom music, and baby and toddler music. She has directed choirs in a youth detention centre and taught music in a centre for homeless teens. Starr helped teach the introductory piano class at her university as an undergraduate student and co-founded a music education scholarship fund. She has successfully helped students prepare for university auditions, exams, festivals and performance. She has experience working with children with various educational needs and is a skilled aural teacher using Kodaly methods throughout her work.

Publications

Starr is the composer and creator of the PianoForte method series which is a series of method books designed to develop aural and pianistic skills. She is also the composer of the Colour Suites, a collection of 18 piano solos for the late beginner / early intermediate student. Starr has been published in the Music Teacher magazine and is a regularly contributor to the Piano Professional magazine. She is also the author of a children's book titled What a Lovely Sound which introduces young children to music through nature. The book was illustrated by the artist Susan Merrick and endorsed by Howard Goodall OBE, Katherine Fisher (Piano Safari), Irina Gorin (Tales of a Musical Journey) and Nicola Canton (Vibrant Music Teaching).

Education

Starr holds a Masters in Music Teaching with Distinction from the University of Chichester Music Conservatoire, where her research focused on the development of aural skills, its relationship to cognition, and its application within a piano pedagogical practice. She began her studies as a child with the late Mary Epperson and JulieAnn Smith and went on to earn a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance with honours from the University of Alaska Anchorage where she studied music under Dr. Timothy Smith, Dr. George Belden. Dr. Laura Koenig, and the late Professor Walter Olivares. She placed Alternate in the AMTA/MTNA Collegiate Piano Competition in 2002 with her performance of the Mozart Concerto No. 19 KV 459.