Group Piano for Beginners (5-6 years)
These fun-filled lessons will help your child begin their musical education on a positive note. They will participate in a class where they can socialize and encourage one another, all while learning to play the piano.

Laura Wood
Laura Wood has played piano since 4 years of age. She studied at the Conservatory beginning at five years of age with Ivy Screech. Starting at nine years old, she studied with Edward Parker obtaining consistently high marks in her exams. She successfully completed the teacher training program with her AVCM and first class honours. She particularly loves teaching children and adult beginners, and in addition to her studio teaching, offers piano group instruction at the VCM.
Masterclasses, Workshops, and Jams
Master Classes, Workshops and Jams are an invaluable way to learn from some of the very best musicians in the world and each other. The VCM has a wide variety of opportunities in each of our Program Areas and Departments.
For more information contact the Victoria Conservatory of Music: 250.386.5311 | [email protected]

Robert Holliston
Robert Holliston studied at the Victoria Conservatory of Music under Robin Wood and Winifred Scott Wood, and at the University of British Columbia under Robert Rogers. As an accompanist and chamber player he has performed throughout Canada and the USA, England and New Zealand, and has been heard frequently on CBC-Radio. He has recorded CDs with the popular salon ensemble Viveza, trombonist Ian McDougall, tenor Ken Lavigne, his brother Tom Holliston, Show Business Giants, and members of the Hornby Island Ensemble. Robert has collaborated with many of Canada’s leading singers, including Richard Margison, Benjamin Butterfield, Judith Forst, Nathalie Paulin, Susan (…)

Emily Nagelbach
Emily Nagelbach, Faculty Department Head, Winds and Brass, Conservatory School of Classical Music. Emily is second flute/piccolo with the Vancouver Island Symphony and principal flute of the Palm Court Orchestra. As a freelance musician, she has performed with many orchestras, including the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Victoria Symphony Orchestra and Pacific Opera Victoria. Emily holds an AVCM from the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), a B.Mus. in Performance and Theory from Wilfrid Laurier University and a M.Mus. in Performance from the University of British Columbia, studying with Amy Hamilton, Lorna McGhee and Camille Churchfield. As a teacher, Emily thoroughly enjoys teaching flute and piccolo to students of all ages and abilities. Her students are part of a vibrant and active studio, performing regularly in recital, masterclass, festivals, and exams. […]

Daniel Lapp
Daniel Lapp is a world-renowned singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, teacher, archivist, band leader, sideman, producer, promoter and – no kidding – the list goes on. And like the true-blue Canadian he is, Daniel does it all with trademark energy and warmth. As a fiddler, jazz trumpeter and singer/songwriter, Daniel Lapp has played on over 100 albums and performed across Canada, United States, Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Finland and Germany with some of the world’s most renowned Folk and Jazz musicians. Daniel is the winner of the B.C. Fiddle Championship and has appeared as a soloist with the CBC Chamber Orchestra as well as (…)

David Visentin
David Visentin is widely known throughout Canada as a performer, conductor, pedagogue and arts administrator whose leadership and creative experience in the performing arts has successfully advanced classical music from coast to coast. In 2011, founded Sistema Toronto and was appointed as the organization’s President and CEO. Sistema Toronto is a free and uniquely immersive after-school social program through music for at-risk children and youth, modeled after the highly successful program known as el Sistema. For six years, as dean and associate dean of The Glenn Gould School and Young Artists Performance Academy of The Royal Conservatory of Music, David […]

Simon MacDonald
Simon MacDonald began playing the violin at age seven, here in Victoria, British Columbia. Following studies with Frona Colquhoun and Sydney Humphreys, Simon earned his AVCM Teacher and Performance Diploma from the VCM, Bachelor’s degree from New England Conservatory in Boston, and Master’s degree from the Schulich School of Music, at the University of McGill, in Montreal. Simon’s musical education also included performing at music festivals in Europe and North America, including Schleswig Holstein Music Festival (Germany), The Festival of Two Worlds (Italy), the Spoleto Festival (Charleston, South Carolina), Tanglewood Music Festival and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (Massachusetts), and at ArtSpring Festival on Salt Spring Island. […]

Daniel Brandes
Daniel Brandes has been a faculty member at the Victoria Conservatory of Music since 2015, where he has worked and taught in a number of areas. He teaches theory and ear training courses and lessons in the Postsecondary and Music Technology & Creativity program areas, as well as the Creative Impulse, a course focusing on cultivating creative practices. Additionally, Daniel is the program director and lead choir director for the VCM’s ChoirKids program delivered tuition-free through VCM Children’s Music Outreach into underserved schools in the Capital Regional District. As of July 2021, Daniel is the Artistic Director of the VCM’s […]
Piano for Adult Beginners
An introduction to playing piano for adults new to music study, with emphasis on reading musical notation and rhythmic understanding.

Laura Wood
Laura Wood has played piano since 4 years of age. She studied at the Conservatory beginning at five years of age with Ivy Screech. Starting at nine years old, she studied with Edward Parker obtaining consistently high marks in her exams. She successfully completed the teacher training program with her AVCM and first class honours. She particularly loves teaching children and adult beginners, and in addition to her studio teaching, offers piano group instruction at the VCM.