Tutors

Karl Lutchmayer is equally renowned as a concert pianist and a lecturer. A Steinway Artist, Karl performs across the globe, and has worked with conductors including Lorin Maazel and Sir Andrew Davis, and performed at all the major London concert halls. He has broadcast on BBC Television and Radio, All India Radio and Classic FM, and is a regular chamber performer.

He is part of the team introducing the London Prom concerts for BBC television and recently curated and performed in a three-day festival of the music of Busoni in London, including a performance of the Piano Concerto for which he received extensive media attention. Karl held an academic lectureship at Trinity Laban  for 15 years and is a regular guest lecturer at conservatoires around the world, including the Juilliard and Manhattan Schools in New York.

Karl is currently undertaking a PhD in Cambridge, but he has usually resided in London, where he is sometimes spotted in his alternative incarnation as keyboard, percussion and theremin player in the prog rock band The Connoisseur.

Christine Stevenson enjoys a distinguished career as a piano recitalist and concerto soloist. Winner of the prestigious Dom Polski Chopin competition, her wide experience extends from making the premiere recording of Alkan’s Rondo Brillant with members of the London Mozart Players, to performing at Highclere Castle – more widely known as ‘Downton Abbey‘ – in a recital of music by Chopin and Paderewski.

In 2025 she will be performing works by Ravel in celebration of the 150th anniversary of his birth, as well as Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which Ravel orchestrated.

Recitals in 2024 have featured music by ‘Chopin and Liszt – the Patriot and the Pilgrim’, exploring both the patriotism of Chopin and the significance of his music to the Polish nation, as well as Liszt’s Pilgrimages – musical, geographical, national and spiritual.

In 2023 Christine’s chamber music repertoire included the rarely performed Piano Trio in G Minor by Clara Schumann, while solo repertoire investigated ‘Rachmaninoff’s Revolutions’ to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth.

Christine’s blog, Notes from a Pianist, covers a wide range of piano-related topics. Recent series include The Romantic Piano, Nocturnes – A Little Night Music, The French Connection – An A-Z of music by Debussy, and Death in Venice – with posts about Wagner, Stravinsky and Britten. Her recording of Liszt’s Années de Pèlerinage – II- Italie received excellent reviews and is available on CD and on iTunes.

An inspiring communicator, Christine is on the staff of the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music in London, as well as having been invited to give masterclasses at Morley College in London, the Pianissimi Course in Suffolk, Jackdaws Educational Trust, the Hindhead Music Centre, the City Lit, for the Victorian Music Teachers’ Association and for the London Piano Circle. She studied with pupils of Cortot, of Nadia Boulanger and of Michelangeli, and with the celebrated English pianist, Ronald Smith, also participating in masterclasses given by Sergei Dorensky, Aldo Ciccolini and Vlado Perlemuter. www.christinestevenson.net

Graham Fitch   maintains an international reputation as a pianist, teacher, adjudicator and writer. His workshops and classes, which he gives all over the world, have received high praise for their creative and illuminating approach to the subject. He graduated with honours from the Royal College of Music in London, winning the Hopkinson Gold Medal for piano performance. A Fulbright Scholarship then took him to the United States, where he completed his studies with Ann Schein and Nina Svetlanova, as well as participating in regular classes with Leon Fleisher, winning first prize in the Mieczyslaw Munz Piano Competition.

From 1997 to 2008, Graham Fitch was Associate Professor, Head of Keyboard at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town, from where he travelled extensively to perform and teach. An international tour of Bach’s Goldberg Variations elicited rapturous reviews on four continents, and invitations to return to Australia, New Zealand and the USA. He gave recitals, masterclasses and keynote addresses at several consecutive Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conferences in Australia, and has been in residence at London’s Royal Academy of Music.

Graham is a regular writer for Pianist Magazine, and has many video demonstrations on the magazin’e YouTube channel. His popular blog, www.practising the piano.com , led to a series of 4 e-books on piano playing and the founding of a subscription website, the Online Academy, that features his own study editions, writings and videos, as well as content from a team of international pianists and teachers.

Graham teaches privately in London, and counts among his long-term students Daniel Grimwood and James Baillieu, with many others active in the profession. In addition to teaching talented youngsters, tertiary level piano students and working with piano teachers, Graham is very interested in helping amateur pianists develop their playing. Graham is a principal tutor on The Piano Teachers’ Course (UK), and is also a regular tutor at the Summer School for Pianists. He gives weekend courses at Finchcocks and Jackdaws, annual piano courses in France and Switzerland, and also gives regular workshops and classes across the UK.

Website: www.grahamfitch.com

Blog: www.practisingthepiano.com

Jill Morton enjoys a highly successful career as soloist, chamber musician and teacher. Her performances have taken her throughout Britain and across Europe and have received critical acclaim. Since making her professional debut, she has performed in all the major concert halls throughout Britain and has been heard on BBC Radio 2’s Friday Night is Music Night as soloist with the BBC Concert Orchestra.

In addition to her performing career, Jill is a Principal Tutor for the Piano Teachers’ Course UK, the country’s leading professional course for piano pedagogy, and has a successful YouTube channel showcasing the syllabus repertoire on the ABRSM and Trinity graded music syllabuses. She has given masterclasses at universities and specialist music schools throughout Britain and is becoming recognised as a competition adjudicator. She also teaches at the Perse school in Cambridge and is Pianist in Residence at the British Isles Music Festival.

After becoming a mum, Jill was inspired to set up “Encore! Concerts for all, big and small”. This monthly concert series provides an opportunity for preschool children and their carers to experience the thrill of live music in a relaxed and informal environment. The series celebrated its 10^th birthday in September 2023.

Jill was also recently commissioned to write some of the teaching notes to accompany the new ABRSM piano syllabus. www.jillmorton.com

Martin Cousin is now regarded as one of the most exceptional pianists of his generation, having been awarded 1st prize at the 2005 Ettore Pozzoli International Piano Competition (Seregno, Italy) and Gold Medal at the 2003 Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition (London). Martin has appeared regularly in the major British musical venues since graduating from the Royal College of Music, making his London solo debut at the Purcell Room in 1998. Numerous solo recitals followed, most notably at the Wigmore Hall in 2001, 2005, and 2011 and he has appeared as concerto soloist with the London Philharmonic, Halle, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia and BBC Concert Orchestras. He enjoys a regular concert schedule in the UK and Europe and previous tours have included New Zealand, Japan and the US.

2006 saw the release of his debut CD, Rachmaninov’s Sonata No.1 and Morceaux de Salon with SOMM Recordings, which was selected as Classical CD of the week by the Daily Telegraph. The US magazine Fanfare added, “This is the performance of the 1st Sonata that I have always heard in my head but never thought I’d actually get to hear with my ears. This guy’s the Real Deal!” His second CD for SOMM, featuring Glazunov’s piano sonatas, was released in 2010 to great acclaim, with Gramophone stating that the new release is ‘in every way, an impressive disc.’

His disc of Rachmaninov’s Etudes-Tableaux was released in 2014 and was proclaimed ‘a landmark recording’ by the Observer with a 5-star review. Classical Source added, ‘This is one of the best solo piano records I have heard for a very long time – the more so considering it faces some pretty severe competition in the catalogues. Those who do not know these extraordinarily original masterpieces are strongly advised to acquire this disc. There is none better’. Fanfare Magazine proclaimed, ‘Based on the present disc and on the towering performance of the First Sonata on his debut CD, I am prepared to state that Cousin is among the most distinguished Rachmaninoff pianists of our generation.’

2 discs of Rubinstein’s piano music were released by Naxos in 2023, gaining 5 stars in MUSICA Magazine, 5 tuning forks from Diapason and 4 stars from Ritmo Magazine. Following this, 2 discs of Liszt’s solo piano transcriptions were also released by Naxos in 2024, gaining 5 stars from Ritmo magazine – ‘to be able to play Liszt’s piano music you have to be as virtuosic as he was, a requirement at which Martin Cousin excels’ and American Record Guide remarking that ‘Cousin’s voice shines like a jewel’. Martin will record the final 2 discs in Naxos’ series of Scarlatti’s complete piano music in 2024/25, for release in 2025/26.

Martin is also a member of the Aquinas Piano Trio and his hands were featured on the big screen in the Oscar-winning film “Shine”, for the scenes involving Rachmaninov’s 3rd Concerto.

Martin’s teaching experience spans over 30 years and covers areas as diverse as masterclasses in Thailand, Indonesia and Norway, being a guest tutor and artist for Lot Music and La Balie in France, and previous piano teaching posts at the London Oratory School and Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School.

He currently holds piano teaching posts at Trinity School, Westminster School and Westminster Under School.