Piano Summer School

• One-to-one piano lessons (at least two per participant) 
• One-to-one chamber music coaching (at least two per participant) 
• One-to-one improvisation lessons (at least two per participants)
• Piano duets 
• Daily piano technique clinic 
• Tailored workshops covering practise and performance strategies, memorisation, 
• Daily Yoga and Mindfulness sessions  
• Several Performance Classes 
• Participation in a public final concert held in the magnificent St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral as part of the Festival
• Informal concerts by staff and participants  
• Fun and engaging evening activities including a walking tour of Edinburgh’s historic city centre.  

Helena Buckmayer- Course Director

A highly specialised expert in piano technique, Helena aims to teach pupils to play in an effortless, pain-free way by combining highly sophisticated movements with musical expressions for uncompromised artistic involvement. She has taught at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), the University of St Andrews and the University of Washington, USA. The majority of her pupils move on to study at top conservatoires with many becoming prizewinners at national and international competitions, including the Piano Competition in Seville, London Online Piano Competition, Loretto Steinway Competition and Luigi Cerritelli. Helena joined the School in 2014 and focuses on our first-study pianists. In 2023, she was appointed President of the World Piano Teachers Association (UK, Scotland).
   
As a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician, Helena has toured throughout Europe, North America and Japan with several concerts broadcast on television and radio. She has played in celebrated venues including Ulmer Kornhaus, Frankfurter Dom, Schloss Illertissen, Usher Hall, The Queen’s Hall, Kobe Concert Hall, Matsue Concert Hall and Hamamatsu Concert Hall. Her playing has been described as ‘lyrical and poetic’ (Suddeutsche Zeitung) and ‘having an almost elfin musicality’ (Broadway) while performing with orchestras such as Wurttembergische Philharmonie, Augsburger Philharmoniker, Sewannee Symphony Orchestra, Collegium Musicum, Orchestra of the Canongait and others, and she has been conducted by luminaries including Philip Jordan, Roberto Paternoster, Kenneth Kiesler and Henning Kussel. Helena was a prizewinner at both the Yamaha Competition and Jugend Musiziert, Germany’s biggest youth platform, and has been taught by world renowned professors including Bela Siki (Seattle), Gyorgy Sebok (Bloomington), Edna Golandsky (NYC) and Bernard Roberts (RCM, London).

Anna Michels- Improvisation Coach

Anna has performed internationally as a soloist and chamber musician and was one of the first students to be awarded a double Bachelors degree from Maastricht Conservatoire in the Netherlands, studying both Piano and Music Theory. Anna also graduated with a Masters and Artist Diploma from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), studying under Aaron Shorr. Anna is interested in unearthing hidden treasures of the classical repertoire, with a focus on the Scottish composer Ronald Center, resulting in international lecture-recitals, including at the London International Piano Symposium and Musica Scotica Conference. She founded the Ad Libitum Collective, an ensemble at the RCS that explores the possibilities of free improvisation. The group collaborates closely with dancers, and this has led to a multidisciplinary performance as part of the annual Piano Festival at RCS. As a solo improviser, she represented the RCS at the METRIC Improvisation Conference in Leipzig in 2023. A recipient of the Cross Trust, Anna was awarded the Falkirk Civic Trust ‘Young Personality of the Year’ and, alongside soprano Rosie Lavery, she works regularly with the charity Live Music Now Scotland, bringing music to those who need it most.