Emma Covill

BMus (Honours) RNCM, PGdip Conservatorium van Amsterdam, MMus GSMD, PGCE

Piano teacher

Emma was born in London and has been a prize-winner at many national and international piano competitions. She enjoys an international career as a solo pianist and chamber musician having performed throughout Europe, Russia, Asia, North America and South Africa. She is Finnish on her mother’s side and is a regular guest artist at the Karelia Society Summer Festival Helsinki and the Finnish Russian Cultural Festival at Kivennapa Music Centre near St. Petersburg Russia.

She studied with Eileen Rowe and Danielle Salamon and then with Vanessa Latarche at the Royal College of Music Junior Department London. Emma obtained her BMus (Honours) Degree under Helen Krizos at the Royal Northern College of Music. At the RNCM she was winner of the Peter Donahoe Piano Prize and Hilda Collens Memorial Award and premiered Rautavaara’s 1st Piano Concerto in Manchester which was received with critical acclaim.

Emma was the only U.K. pianist selected to participate in the 1998 summer programme at Tanglewood U.S.A. where she was awarded her Fellowship and was winner of the Grace B. Jackson Prize. Tutors and mentors there included Emmanuel Ax, Peter Serkin, The Julliard Quartet, Mauricio Kagel, Reinbert de Leeuw and Seiji Ozawa. She subsequently qualified with her Postgraduate Performance Diploma from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam under the professorship of Matthijs Verschoor and was the very first pianist on this newly structured two-year course to be awarded the performance diploma from the Conservatorium. In Holland, Emma participated in the ‘American Adventures Concert Series’ and toured as a guest soloist with the ‘Marinierskapel’. On her return to England, Emma commenced further studies with Gordon Back and Yfrah Neaman at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, specialising in violin/piano duo repertoire with Finnish violinist Jaso Sasaki. She graduated with her Masters Degree in Music Performance, and later received her PGCE qualification in Music Teaching from the University of London, Institute of Education.

Emma is in much demand as a piano tutor in Surrey England where her pupils have achieved outstanding success in ABRSM examinations, competitions and music festivals. She is a regular member of the International Panel of Adjudicators for the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival. She joined the Keyboard teaching staff of the RCM Junior Department in 2015.

Emma is a Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers and in 2007 was granted the ‘Freedom of the City of London’. In her spare time she enjoys painting, clay pigeon shooting and is a dedicated member of her German Shepherd dog training club!

Faculties / departments: Junior Department