Piano/keyboards 1C

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.

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.

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.

Adam is an award-winning composer and jazz musician from Hackney in London. He was classically trained as a pianist from the age of ten, under teachers Ginny Strawson and Alexander Boyd. He went on to study jazz at the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy, and won the Duke Ellington Composition Award. He received a first-class honours degree in Composition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. There he was the resident composer for the woodwind department two years in a row, winning the Orchestral Composition Award for his final major project. Adam now performs and teaches around London. His teaching methods are inspired by his classical, jazz and improvisation background.

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.

Cheslav has performed internationally as a pianist at renowned venues, on radio and television in many different contexts, playing everything from Beethoven to free jazz. Since 2011, he has been actively involved in contemporary classical music, having co- founded the audiovisual group a=b=x=y. As s composer he has written in genres ranging from solo pieces to works for symphony orchestra. He is also the co-founder of Our 'PL'ace Foundation, through which, among other activities, he co-curates an annual International Audiovisual Art Festival. As an educator, he is the author of two academic courses on music appreciation, based on the methodology set out by Dr Craig White of Yale University. Cheslav remains active in searching for extended playing techniques on the border between acoustic and electronic music, plays the organ, has a keen interest in tuning systems and is an active student and researcher of Gurba¯n?i¯ San?gi¯ta, having had the immense fortune of being able to work with and for its foremost exponent Bhai Baldeep Singh since 2013.

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.

Early signs of musical activity indicated David’s future path, and after taking grades on both piano and viola, he obtained a first-class honours degree in music at Leeds University, studying both instruments. He subsequently completed a postgraduate jazz course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying piano with Simon Purcell, where he obtained an LGSM. He obtained an MMus in composition with Merit at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, with support from the Trinity College London scholarship, studying with Deirdre Gribbin, Gwyn Pritchard and Paul Newland. David is passionate about teaching, and teaches adult piano students at City Lit, as well as piano to individuals in his private practice and to young learners for Richmond Music Trust. He also performs from time to time as a jazz and classical pianist and undertakes practical music examining work for ABRSM jazz and classical syllabuses both in the UK and abroad. David also enjoys playing chamber music on viola.