theperformingmusician.com is run by me - James Bradbury.
I'm a pianist and teacher and I've been playing since I was six years old. My grandmother had a piano in her house, and when she passed away, nobody wanted it. My parents decided that they'd have it at their house and I would learn to play. Well, learn I did - and within a year my parents were sick of my constant practice of the two or three pieces I'd been able to pick out by ear in that time - I remember one of them was "The Entertainer" by Joplin and even to this day this piece makes my parents cringe.
Of course, recognising that I had some talent, my parents enrolled me with a local teacher. I initially took to classical piano really well, and worked my way up to about Grade 7. However, a passion for jazz took over and I was immersed in the music of Thelonious Monk, and Fats Waller. This was a bit of a passing phase and soon after I found myself back in the land of Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. At 18 I went to my local university in Leeds to study music and this followed three long years of slaving away at the piano, performing in recitals on my own, with orchestras as well as accompanying singers and instrumentalists for exams.
After graduating in 2019, I established a small teaching practice out of my home in Calverley, West Yorkshire. However, in 2023, I decided that I had knowledge that I wanted to share with the world, and therefore I started theperformingmusician.com. And the rest is history. I love to play Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Bach, Chopin and Stravinsky. I've a wealth of experience in playing and teaching the piano and I want to share it with you!
We also have a few guest contributors, mainly consisting of people I went to college with:
Jenny Ayoub
Our resident strings and violin expert. Jenny graduated with a masters' in violin performance in 2015 and is an established teacher and performer all over the UK and Europe.
Robert Fischer
Our resident guitar expert. Robert is a prominent classical and jazz guitar teacher. He is a big fan of Japanese jazz fusion bands - two of his favourites being Casiopea and T-Square.
Fuyuko Hirabayashi
A native of Japan, Fuyuko is multi-talented as she is a pianist as well as a flautist. Fuyuko is our woodwind expert but she occasionally contributes piano and keyboard articles too.
From time to time we may bring on other guest contributors, but there's a wealth of experience here at The Performing Musician and we'll do our best to keep putting out high-quality, relevant articles for you to enjoy!
If there's anything you'd like to speak to any of us about, or you have any questions or feedback about the site, get in touch with us using our contact page.