Starr Meneely - Creator and Composer of the PianoForte Method

Starr is an accomplished pianist and music teacher. She believes in a holistic approach to music education, where each child is immersed in music as a language and art form that allows for broad creativity and deep understanding.

Teaching

Starr has been teaching music for 30 years, both in the USA and the UK. She has successfully prepared students for university auditions, exams, festivals and performance. She also has experience teaching children’s theatre, choir, school classroom music, and baby and toddler music. She has directed choirs in a youth detention centre and taught music in a centre for homeless teens. Starr helped teach the introductory piano class at her university as an undergraduate student and co-founded a music education scholarship fund. Starr also has a specialism in working with children with diverse educational needs, including dyslexia and autism, and is a skilled aural teacher using Kodaly methods throughout her work.

Publications

Starr is the composer and creator of the entire PianoForte method series and the accompanying ‘Piano Repertoire’ collection. She has been published in the Music Teacher magazine and is a regular contributor to the Piano Professional magazine. She is also the author of a children's book titled What a Lovely Sound which introduces young children to music through nature. The book was illustrated by the artist Susan Merrick and endorsed by Howard Goodall OBE.

Education

Starr holds a Masters in Music Teaching with Distinction from the University of Chichester Music Conservatoire, where her research focused on the development of aural skills, its relationship to cognition, and its application within a piano pedagogical practice. She began her studies as a child with the late Mary Epperson and JulieAnn Smith and went on to earn a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance with honours from the University of Alaska Anchorage where she studied music under Dr. Timothy Smith, Dr. George Belden. Dr. Laura Koenig, and the late Professor Walter Olivares. She placed Alternate in the AMTA/MTNA Collegiate Piano Competition in 2002 with her performance of the Mozart Concerto No. 19 KV 459.