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Calgary piano teacher, Vincent SPICER.
I offer piano instruction in traditional, classical repertoire and popular method of playing piano by ear. I can prepare students for Royal Conservatory of Music exams, festivals and recitals. Traditional piano lessons have an emphasis on piano technique and ear training, notation and general musicianship. In more advanced grades, music theory is taught in a separate lesson specialising in that subject (rudiments, harmony, counterpoint, etc.). I am conveniently located near the NW Calgary communities of Hanson Ranch, Hidden Valley, Hamptons, Kincora, Evanston, Sage Hill, Nolan Hill. My background in music ... I began formal piano studies in 1974 with Dale Jackson (MRU).
Tim Spicer * * * I completed the Teacher's ARCT (Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto) diploma with Dale Jackson, then I started a B.Mus. with Marilyn Engle at the University of Calgary. I did not complete the B.Mus. degree since my university career path became distracted by a variety of new discoveries in sciences and education. This does not mean that my passion for music, piano performance and piano teaching have diminished. Although I have been teaching private piano lessons in Calgary since 1980 on a part-time basis*, I wanted more than the one-on-one dynamics of piano teacher-piano student so I decided to pursue a B.Ed. degree so that I could become certificated to teach in a school setting. I am currently employed as a French Immersion teacher (Grade 5). I was a consistent winner in the Calgary Kiwanis Music Festival during the late 1970s (early 1980s). I achieved the highest mark on the Grade 10 piano exam in Alberta (Royal Conservatory) for both the winter and summer session that year. Although piano performance was my strength, I chose to complete the "Teacher's" ARCT diploma with the Toronto Conservatory; this was a practical decision since the likelihood of me teaching piano was high--and I decided to not pursue a concert career. I gave up the idea of a concert performance career because the inevitable sacrifice and seclusion that is required in order to amass a substantial concert repertoire did not appeal to me. I wanted more in life than just piano and isolation. My interests are quite varied. My work experience has also been quite varied. I worked at Telus Mobility for 11 years (customer service, trainer, systems analyst) and 11 years at WestJet Airlines. Due to a heavy work life (I've always worked 2 jobs simultaneously), my involvement in piano has been on a part-time basis. For this reason, I need to be selective as to how many students I can accept. I retired from WestJet on May 31, 2012 (but not from school teaching, nor piano teaching) which means I will be turning more of my time back to teaching private piano lessons. I am married and have a daughter in high school who plays piano and is in Spanish immersion. « Studio Spicer » We built a new house in NW Calgary (October 2012), near Symons Valley Ranch and for now the piano is in the main floor living room. I plan to develop the basement into a nice, large music studio as soon as I am able to. My piano is a Baldwin model L, 6'3" Artist grand piano. Here are some photos. For now, my time will be focused on piano lessons, including elementary rudiments; later, I will be interested in teaching other theoretical subjects (harmony, counterpoint, analysis). My training is traditional classical but I can also offer a leisure approach to learning piano or playing piano by ear. If you think you might like to study piano with me please contact me by email to arrange an interview: vincent.spicer@gmail.com
* My previous piano teaching experience is equivalent to about 10 years (1980 to 1990 in Calgary). This website was created on 2012-05-14 at 20h00. This site is managed by me, I do my own website design, run my own web server (it's sitting right near my piano in the basement!). |
