In an exciting move for St Mary’s Music School we are delighted to welcome Dr Valerie Pearson as our new Head of Strings. Valerie joins us from the University of York and her background combines performance, composition and teaching.
The new full-time role will allow William Conway, who has been fulfilling the joint role of Head of Strings and Artistic Director for more than ten years, to devote more time to his role as the School’s Artistic Director.
Valerie studied the violin with Diana Cummings at the Royal Academy of Music during her undergraduate music degree at King's College London and says that Diana's teaching gave her a deep understanding of the physiology of playing, which completely transformed her relationship with the violin, and had a huge influence on her own teaching.
Her interest in modern music, and in the relationship between performer, composer and audience formed the basis of her doctoral research at the University of York, where she also developed ways of combining performance and composition through improvisation.
With a wealth of experience as a teacher, Valerie's skills range from starting off three-year-old Suzuki violinists to leading university projects, and teaching at international summer music schools. While completing her PhD at the University of York, she began building a private teaching practice that became highly successful and widely sought after. She created a close network of confident young players through extra group activities, chamber music and concerts, and enjoyed supporting them in their successes in national competitions, and National Children’s Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra and conservatoire auditions.
Dr Taylor, Headteacher at St Mary’s Music School said “Valerie brings with her a wealth of experience and expertise which will not only benefit our own pupils but also other talented young musicians throughout the land as we develop our outreach activity to support music education across Scotland. We are delighted to welcome her to the St Mary’s Music School community.”
Valerie is excited soon to be revealing to us her plans for the String Faculty, for Junior Music and for Outreach and Engagement and tells us she is really looking forward to starting at St Mary’s and having the wonderful opportunity of working with talented young people who are passionate about music!'