Our Story     

Corestar Music started in 2013 after Colleen came back from attending the Sykes Music Teacher Course all excited. It had ignited her madness for the piano and passion for music again, which started when she was aged 5. What she really liked about Sykes Music was the roundedness of the program with the inclusion of many styles of music, arrangement, improvisation, playing by ear as well as by notes. Having learnt piano the traditional way she found Sykes Music to be a much more creative and enjoyable way to learn. She saw how a well crafted incremental and developmental program can make a big difference to enjoyment and progress of a piano student.   

She started teaching with a handful of students and has continued to grow, learn and teach since then, attending many of the piano pedagogy conferences on offer, following numerous piano teacher blogs, performing occasionally to continually develop herself as a pianist and as a teacher.

Her philosophy is that everyone is musical in some way and that the joy of music making is something everyone is entitled to. She loves the community aspect of music, how it draws everyone together and brings joy. She feels privileged to connect with her students week to week, to be a guide on their unique journey of musical self expression. As a Buddhist practitioner her aim is to bring out each person's "corestar", the inner enlightened state, the unlimited energetic creative potential each of us has within.

Initially Paul came on board to help with concerts, workshops and ensemble projects for Colleen's piano students. Paul's principle instrument is the Tuba although he plays the piano, cello, guitar and any other instrument he can get his hands on. With Paul's abilities in making arrangements and the vision of making music more community oriented and accessible, they started work on creating Boom Whacker ensemble workshops. See MusicFun4Life.com for more information about the Boom Whacker ensemble workshops.

Although a shy performer Colleen enjoys playing in small ensembles. Together with Paul they formed Duo Per La Pace (Duo for Peace) as a piano and cello duo drawing from classical and contemporary music tending towards the more popular or well known pieces for the enjoyment of the audience. 

Having a musical child in the family also learning piano and cello, Project Three Quarters was created specially as a piano and 2 cello ensemble. The ensemble was named after his three quarter sized cello and also in honour of our second born who didn't get the chance to complete our quartet. 

About Colleen

Sung with Perth Undergraduate Choral Society and performed in a few concerts with them  

Played clarinet in Nedlands Concert Band

Sung with Holy Trinity of Brompton Church Choir in London for a Christmas concert

Performed in a drum ensemble with SGI UK at Albert Hall in a musical production.

Played assorted percussion, timpani and piano with the Hills Symphony Orchestra

Accompanied the SGIA WA choir

Accompanied Brenda Lee Jazz at the Perth French Festival

Performed the Mozart Piano Concerto No 21 with Hills Symphony Orchestra

About Paul

Studied at Perth Modern through a music scholarship

Played Tuba in WA Youth Concert Band

Played in jazz band Wee Three

Sang with Naya Chorale 

Plays in jazz band The Stevedores

Plays Tuba and Cello in the Hills Symphony Orchestra