Daniel Tong - Teaching
Daniel Tong is Head of Piano in Chamber Music at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he also teaches a number of solo piano students. He also coaches chamber music at the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music. Daniel has been invited to give masterclasses and adjudicate prizes at the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Leeds College of Music, Bristol, Oxford and Southampton Universities. In 2015 he established a new summer school for young chamber ensembles in the Wye Valley, an event that has run annually ever since. Daniel has also been a jury member for the BBC Young Musicians piano final, Royal Overseas League piano competition and Making Music Awards.
Daniel regularly presents study sessions, from the long-running 'Discovery Day' at his Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival and a series on Beethoven Piano Sonatas at St Georges in Bristol, to a study day on Dvorak's chamber music at Kings Place in London and an annual weekend at beautiful Clytha Park in South Wales, focusing in depth on a different concert programme each year. Four times each year, Daniel teams up with his longstanding friend and collaborator, the musicologist and broadcaster Richard Wigmore. Together they present musical events and ever-popular 'house parties', where a group of music-lovers stay with the hosts and musicians, exploring the music each day in a convivial setting, with live examples and concert performances.
Daniel is most indebted to his three main teachers, each of whom inspired him in a different way and whose approach has remained with him throughout his musical life: first Hilary Coates at Wells Cathedral School, then Irina Zaritskaya at the Royal College of Music and finally Paul Roberts at the Guildhall School. He followed this with regular trips to the IMS Easter courses at Prussia Cove and masterclasses both there and in London with Gyorgy Sebok, Ferenc Rados and Andras Keller. Daniel was recently awarded his PhD for a study focussing on Beethoven's contemporary presence.
Daniel's teaching draws upon all these different experiences and approaches. An open mind and inquisitive nature are essential for any artist, student and teacher alike. Studying and mastering a great piece of music is hard work, but work that is endlessly revealing and all the more fun for that. For any enquiries, see the contact page.