Piano/keyboards 1B

Sarha is an experienced teacher and gigging musician, performing on the saxophone, arranging and composing on the piano, in classical, jazz and world music genres. Her principal band, Bollywood Brass Band, is the UK’s pioneering Indian-style wedding band, performing tunes and compulsively danceable rhythms of Bollywood films. Twice nominated for Songlines World Music Awards, the band has performed across the world in concerts, festivals, and Indian weddings in the UK, Europe, India, Thailand and South Africa. Sarha played with Ghanaian Highlife band Orchestre Jazira, and socialist big band, The Happy End. She also plays in the Charlie Mingus jazz cover band Hog Callin’, The Great Yiddish Parade marching band and Freylekh klezmer band. Sarha’s specialist area is World Music, and she has a PhD on the study of the Flattened Supertonic across different cultures. At CityLit she teaches jazz and classical piano, saxophone, world music styles (practical and academic courses), musicianship and music theory.

Elli is a classically trained pianist and piano tutor from Greece, based in London. She holds an MA in Piano Performance and the LRAM piano teaching diploma from the Royal Academy of Music, a Bachelor's degree in Musicology from the University of Athens and degrees in Advanced Music Theory (Counterpoint and Fugue). She has performed professionally as a solo pianist and as part of ensembles and orchestras in the UK, USA and many European countries. Her concerts have included lectured recitals, all-Chopin recitals and all-Bach recitals. Elli is passionate about education and believes that music should be taught and enjoyed at any age. She has been teaching piano and music theory to students of all levels, from complete beginners to advanced, in various schools in London for the past 10 years. She has also given piano masterclasses in Greece and in the USA.

Maya-Leigh Rosenwasser is a performer, improviser, composer and researcher specialising in performing and composing works for piano (solo and chamber), live electronics and multi-disciplinary ensembles. She graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2018 with a BMus in Classical Piano Performance and later, a Masters of Music (Distinction) from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Notable performances include solo recitals at Kyrios Steinway Gallery, Leeds International Piano Competition, Oxford University, Bishopsgate Institute, Cafe Oto, Snape Maltings and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Alongside her busy and eclectic performance career, Maya-Leigh has extensive teaching experience working with students of all ages including leading Higher Education workshops and performance classes at Trinity Laban. She firmly believes that music should be accessible and enjoyable at every level and that learning the piano can be such a rewarding and confidence building experience as an adult. She has ran piano workshops and community classes in the Pianodrome, Farnham Maltings, The Artsdepot and Finchley Youth Theatre.

Lucía is a pianist and music educator based in London. Originally from Spain, she specialised in piano performance and chamber music before completing a Master's degree at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Always interested in collaborating with other musicians, she has developed her career as a soloist (playing at venues like St Martin-In-the-Fields and Royal Festival Hall),as a chamber musician, and has taken part in different ensembles, accompanying singers or other instrumentalists. She also collaborates with colleagues from other fields, like dancers and actors. She has also worked as a repetiteur, orchestral musician and taken part in a samba group playing percussion. Lucía won the piano place for the London Philharmonic Orchestra's Foyle Future Firsts Programme in 2015 and a position for the Chamber Tots Scheme at the Wigmore Hall in 2018. Lucía has extensive experience teaching piano to children and adults in different institutions in and around London. She is passionate about motivating the students to enjoy playing the piano and learning a musical instrument, finding an efficient and engaging way to practise while making it fun and inspiring.

Ana Claudia Magalhaes is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She has a degree in Music (main instrument Piano) at the School of Music of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She also attended for many years, the piano class of Gloria Maria da Fonseca Costa, a former pupil of Alexander Siloti. Gloria Maria was a major influence and inspiration in Ana's piano studies. Ana came to London in 1996, where she took the Post Graduate and MA degree in Music Teaching at the Professional Practice at the University of Reading. She has a passion for teaching, individually and in groups, from beginners to advanced, children and adults and she enjoys adapting her teaching according to the main needs of her students/classes. Although her main Musical Education was Classical, Ana has also developed the ability to improvise and play by ear since her teens when playing in bands with her youth friends and she thinks this freedom was very important for her formation as a musician. Ana plays solo but she also enjoys mainly playing chamber music, accompanied by other people. She has combined teaching and performing since she lived in Brazil.

Jonathan Wilson BMus MMus studied Piano Performance and Electroacoustic Composition at Goldsmiths College, University of London under the tutelage of internationally acclaimed musicians such as John Tilbury, Alexander Ivashkin, and Colin Lawson (currently director, Royal College of Music). During this period he won 1st place at the Blackheath Music Festival in the Piano category, and has had his pieces performed at the Saatchi Gallery, London. Jonathan is a multi-instrumentalist and is equally proficient in playing electric guitar and drums; as a regular live performer and accomplished session musician he has toured with major label recording artists and performed at prestigious venues such as Glastonbury Festival, Isle of Wight Festival, Reading and Leeds Festivals, Latitude Festival and the Royal Festival Hall. He is currently an in-demand tutor who teaches both privately and at a number of educational establishments across London.

Gisela is a multi-skilled musician: She works as a pianist, piano accompanist, classical soprano, cellist and teacher. Following undergraduate studies in Frankfurt-am-Main and a postgraduate diploma (piano) in Weimar, Gisela obtained a MMus in Accompaniment at the Guildhall School for Music and Drama. She has also studied singing privately with Jessica Cash, focussing primarily on oratorio and art songs. Gisela performs regularly in recitals as a soloist (as pianist or singer) and also sings and plays in a variety of chamber ensembles. In her freelance work she accompanies concerts, exams and recitals for professionals, students of various music colleges and Grade exam canditates. She is a consultant for Islington Sixth Form college, with her roles ranging from accompaniment and teaching to the conducting of exams and auditions. Gisela has taught at City Lit since 2001. Presently, she teaches Chamber music (Advanced and Intermediate) and Piano.