OUR PIANO TEACHERS IN KNAPHILL
Eralys Fernandez PDip MMus
Head of Academy2009-2010 PDip Early Music and Harpsichord. Guildhall School of Music & Drama under Nicholas Parle.
2006-2008 MMus in Advanced Performance in Piano and Harpsichord at the Royal College of Music (MMus) under the direction of Mr Nigel Clayton and Robert Woley.
1995-2000 Diploma Distinction in Piano Performance at the Higher Institute of Arts, University in Havana Cuba (BMus) under the direction of Ms Olga Valiente.
1986-1989 Piano and Music Diploma at Amadeo Roldan Music Conservatoire, Havana, Cuba.Dr Marie Ward PhD, M. MUS (RCM), BA (Hons), Dip RCM, ARCM, LGSM
Piano TeacherMarie completed her first degree in music at Kingston University. While there, she won the concerto competition and performed the Grieg with the University symphony orchestra, simultaneously gaining a performance diploma with Honours from the Guildhall. She then attended the Royal College of Music and completed a Masters's degree, after which she gained a teaching diploma. Whilst at the RCM she won the Vivian Hamilton Chopin prize. This provided inspiration for her Ph.D. research; the early piano music of Alexander Scriabin, which she completed at Kingston while also teaching there and assisting students with their Master's theses. She also won a further concerto competition and performed Rachmaninoff's 2nd. Marie has been Head of Piano at Cranleigh School for the last 10 years. She is also an experienced adjudicator and is an organist and musical director at a local Surrey church. She has 32 years of experience as a teacher. Marie is our teacher on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday
Joshua Cheng BA (HONS) MUS
Piano TeacherMasters Graduate from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, studying with Julian Jacobson and Mark Bebbington. Attended masterclasses by Angela Hewitt, Imogen Cooper, Stephen Hough, Yevgeny Sudbin, Freddy Kempf, Stephen kovacevich. Self-employed as a private piano teacher from the age of 15 until moving to higher education.
Private tuition while studying at music college
Teaching modules were taken in both Bachelor and Master degrees (equivalent of an ABRSM Teaching Diploma) Joshua is our Woking Piano Teacher on Tuesday and Friday.Denis Gravina BMus and MMus
Piano TeacherBorn in France in 1992, Denis has had a lifelong love of music and began playing piano at the young age of five. He had the opportunity to study at the Conservatoire Municipal of Bar Le Duc with pianist and organist Thierry Colas, and later pursued his academic studies at the Conservatoire National de Musique et Danse in Nancy.
While at the Conservatoire National, Gravina received instruction in piano, music theory, harmony, and analysis from a variety of accomplished teachers
Denis completed his BMus and MMus in Music Performance at the prestigious London College of Music, where he had the opportunity to study under Wilfrid Murray, Emilie Capulet, and Robert Sholl. Currently, he is a visiting teacher at the London College of Music and teaches for the ABRSM, LLCM, and Trinity programs.
In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Gravina continues to perform and give concerts and masterclasses in England and France, demonstrating his passion and dedication to the art of music.
Denis teaches on Monday, Thursday and Sunday
ERALYS FERNANDEZ MUSIC ACADEMY
Whether you’re looking for a music tutor for your child or you’re wanting to develop your own musical ability, time spent developing these skills is never wasted. Our lessons cultivate something unique that lasts throughout life; musical skills that can be used and enjoyed at any time, promoting wellbeing, a sense of achievement and the ability to perform. We have been running piano lessons in our garden music rooms in Knaphill for the last 14 years and continue to do so with our excellent Team. However this is not all we do, not everyone wants to learn piano and many of you are time limited and love the idea of lessons at home. Whether you’re wanting to play the Guitar, be it classical, acoustic or electric; improve your Piano skills; develop your vocal talent with Singing lessons; you’ve always longed to take up the Violin; enjoy the fun of Ukulele lessons; or hone those Drum skills, we can find the right tutor for you. There will be options for these tutors to travel to your house or teach at their home/studios. This will be on a case by case basis.
The vision of the Academy is to teach strong technique and develop a real love of music.
Lessons
We teach classical, pop, music theory and prepare students for ABRSM and Trinity Grades 1-8. We also have many students that go further and study for the Performance Diploma. Most of our piano students study ABRSM and Trinity but the other teachers often use the Rock School Syllabus.
Students
Our students range from age 4 to 80+. We have had students that have stayed with us over 10 years and move from beginner level to play concertos and gain scholarships.
Concerts
We run Summer and Winter concerts in a school hall or a church. These are a wonderful opportunity for all students to perform. It is not uncommon for over 40 students to play in an afternoon comprising 3 concerts.
Coverage
Providing tutors across Surrey: from Woking to Slough, Aldershot to Godalming, Cobham to Bracknell.
Competitive Rates
Our teachers have trained hard over many years and there are many sacrifices to be a professional musician. We therefore pay our teachers accordingly. However our prices are competitive and good value as our students make excellent progress in their instruments. We also offer sibling discounts on request.
DRB CHECKS
All our teachers have Enhanced DRB Checks and we take student safe guarding very seriously.
Piano Lesson Prices
Prices for 30 min,45, and 60-minute lessons
Sibling discount
Eralys also teaches the harpsichord from the main garden music room.
GET IN TOUCH
MY LIFE
Born in Guanabacoa in the suburbs of Havana, my musical training started at the age of 7 when I entered the Guillermo Tomas Music Conservatoire. After seven years, I gained a place at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatoire and studied with Olga Valiente, a graduate of the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow.
At the age of 18, I went to the Cuban Higher Institute of Arts for four further years of study. I was extremely happy to win a number of performance prizes in my final year, including best performance of Cuban music.
During my period at University, I also had my first jobs. I worked as a repetiteur for singers, in a Zarzuela theatre company and gained a lot of musical experience about opera and different musical genres. It was a fast paced environment requiring excellent sight-reading skills. I was also a member of an A capella singing group and was very lucky to travel to New York, Paris and Monaco (performing for the House of Grimaldi).
After my graduation I worked as a soloist, chamber musician, musical director of a singing company and pianist in a Flamenco company. I performed a number of times as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra and performed on Radio and TV. I entered competitions during this period, and my biggest prize was winning the Cuban National Union of Writers Award for the best interpretation of Cuban music.
It has always been a dream of mine to do a Masters. I gained two scholarships in Calgary and Alberta in Canada but decided to come to London to the Royal College of Music where I studied for a Master in Advanced Piano (piano and harpsichord) under Nigel Clayton. I followed this course with a further year of study in harpsichord at Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Nicholas Parle. I have a real passion for baroque music and this year changed my vision of baroque performance and also improved my articulation and expressiveness in piano.
In London, I have performed as a soloist and had various musical collaborations. I have been interviewed and performed live on the BBC World Service and Radio 3. I have a duo with the exceptionally gifted and charismatic Brazilian cellist Diego Carneiro, and together we have performed a number of times in London, Brazil and Havana.
I have been interesting in introducing opera to children for many years. I developed a puppet opera project with the singer Maya Sapone and puppeteer Alex Winfield.
The script was based on a fairy tale by Grimm and the music has influences of Puccini, Verdi, jazz modern harmonies, and boogie woogie. The opera has three puppets and has melodies for children and also of interest to adults with a mixture of virtuoso piano and the theme of destructiveness of greed. It was performed at the Tete a Tete Opera festival in 2015.
Based on my experiences with this project I have formed a theatre company called Mini Operas for Mini People to familiarise young children with classical and operatic music.
My new puppet opera has a script by Maria Haik-Escudero and will be performed at the Artsdepot Theatre.
I have been working on the production of my ballet El Cochero Azul ( The Blue Coachman) which will be performed in 2021 by the Cuban Contemporary Dance Company Danza Espiral with choreography by Guillermo Luis Horta.
I have released 2 CDs, “An Afternoon in Havana” (a varied selection of Cuban music). I followed this up with “Alta Gracia” ( a selection of Cuban and Argentinian music featuring music by Lecuona, Piazolla and Guastavino). I have also completed a piano book for children and adults called Light and Jazzy. It features 15 pieces for beginner to intermediate grades.
Fundraising
Please help us to restore the grand piano at the Guillermo Tomas Music Conservatory in Havana, Cuba.
The Guillermo Tomas Music Conservatory, located in the town of Guanabacoa in Havana, is one of the most prestigious music schools in Cuba. Founded in 1961, the school has trained many internationally-recognized musicians, such as Roberto Fonseca, Leonel Morales, and Roberto Carlos, among many others.
Despite the prestige and success of the conservatory, it has not been exempt from the financial hardships faced by the rest of the country. Its only grand piano is an old Estonia. Donated to the school in the 1980s, the piano is now in very poor condition due to its continual use over the past 30 years.
I know, from my own experience, the dedication, love, and professionalism that the professors of the Conservatory have to train new musical talent. My own career as a pianist began there along with my passion for music. My intention with this project is to contribute to the education and creation of the next generation of musicians and composers.
As some of you may know, we recently raised funds to buy a second-hand grand piano for the Amadeo Roldan Music Conservatory. That piano is now in the school thanks to the support of hundreds of people from all over the world.
We hope to have your support again for this second project. However, this time, we thought it would be more cost effective to restore the existing piano rather than shipping one to Cuba.
Dear Friends:
On 8 November 2017, the grand piano we sent from London finally arrived at the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory in Havana.
I want to thank all those who supported us and expressed their solidarity with the project “Send a piano to Cuba”. This action would not have been possible without your help.
María Teresa Pita, head of the Conservatory’s Piano department, sends her infinite gratitude on behalf of all the professors and students at the music school, ‘who received this noble donation with great emotion and joy’.
It has been a long and difficult project, but very happy to have made a small but useful contribution to the education of future pianists.
SHOWREEL
This is a showreel with samples of some of the music I have been composing over the last couple of years. The pieces have a mixture of classical, pop, and Cuban influences. They have varied instrumentations and I have explored mixing instruments from other cultures such as the hang drum and the Duduk.
VIDEOS
BALLET PROMO
This is a Promo for my ballet – The Blue Coachman (El Cochero Azul)
Toccata in E Minor by Bach
Performed in the Basilica Menor de San Francisco de Asis
Joropo by Moises Moleiro
Performed at the Bolivar Hall
Le Grand Tango by Piazzolla
Performed with Diego Carneiro at the Bolivar Hall
32 Variations in C Minor by Beethoven
Performed in Woking
SANTA CAMILIA DE HABANA VIEJA
Trailer of my Opera, performed in Havana in 2022