music educator
Piano | Classical Singing | Music Theory
Qualification
Bachelor of Arts (Hons)
(Music Major),
The University of Hong Kong
Master of Arts in Music
(Piano Pedagogy Major), Hong Kong Baptist University
DipABRSM in Piano Performance
ALCM in Classical Singing
AMusTCL
LMusTCL
Teaching Style
With more than 15 years of full time music teaching, I am experienced in teaching students in all age groups from 4 years old to adult learners and beginners to diploma level. I am also familiar with different examination boards including ABRSM, Trinity and LCM. Most of my students got Merit or Distinction in their grade examinations.
My teaching style is target-oriented. I would communicate with my students as well as their parents for young learners and help them to set different targets to achieve in short-term and long-term. That could be a competition or a performance or an examination. These targets helped my students to keep making progress. In my lessons, Kodaly, Orff and Dalcroze methods are incorporated in every lesson. Meanwhile, I also care about performance gestures. I would apply my knowledge of yoga to help my students to develop a healthier gesture in order to avoid pain in the long run. I believe my knowledge and ability would help my students to develop the enjoyment of music.
Background
Born in Hong Kong, Zachary started piano learning at the age of 10. After a few years of the foundation training of piano performance, the piano repertoire in the late baroque era has been the major concentration of the study since his high school years. Zachary then started formal music training at the University of Hong Kong. In the three years of undergraduate studies, despite the main focus on piano performance and music theories, there were also opportunities to explore different musical genres: an active Balinese Gamelan player, a bass singer and a student conductor. Learning conducting technique with the University Choir under the teaching of Dr Michael Ryan was also another highlight in his undergraduate years. He was therefore exposed to a multicultural background of music which results in the ability of understanding both western classical music and world music.
After graduating from the University of Hong Kong with Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree (Music major), Zachary continued his further studies in the Music Education industry. He completed his Master of Arts in Music degree with a Piano Pedagogy major at Hong Kong Baptist University. At the same time, he also gave piano lessons in order to acquire piano teaching skills and to adapt piano pedagogical knowledge into his piano lessons. In this period of time, he studied piano performance from Stephen Wong and finished the master degree dissertation about baroque keyboard repertoire under the supervision of Professor David Chung.