Music Teachers' Association
of New South Wales

Leonie Cohen

Stephen Kiely

Piano | Guitar | Bass Guitar | Singer-songwriter | Performer | Music Producer | Creative Director

Introduced to the piano at the age of five, Stephen completed all grades by age thirteen, gaining credits in every exam.

He then decided to take up guitar and bass guitar and at age eighteen he rediscovered piano via jazz, and specifically due to hearing the piano virtuosity of Keith Jarrett and Oscar Peterson, began developing his skills at the keyboard via jazz and pop music.

Stephen's teaching career began at age 17, during his first year at the University Of New England. In a bid to earn extra-curricular funds, while on a Federal Govt. scholarship he took employment with a local music shop in Armidale, NSW as guitar teacher to some 30 students.

Stephen's creative nature led him to write songs from an early age. However, he soon learnt an important lesson when dealing with the music industry: Industry attention is always focussed on songwriters who have a platform for their material. He formed the touring band, RadioActive, which, on the strength of his songs, was signed to record company EMI. The band toured Australia constantly, gaining rave reviews as a live act, as well as chart success both in Europe and here in Australia, where they appeared on television shows such as Countdown and Hey, Hey It’s Saturday, among others, while maintaining a gruelling national touring schedule. Stephen was the sole songwriter in the band, providing a repertoire of songs, which allowed the band to perform for two hours or completely original songs.

Taking a break from the constant touring schedule, Stephen began working solo around the nightclubs of Sydney, while he turned his hand to film music, co-writing the soundtrack to the critically acclaimed 'Stallion Of The Sea' as well as having songs placed within films such as the cult noir film, 'Early Frost', at the same time performing in an advertising jingle band.

For many years, Stephen has been entertaining audiences in Sydney, with brief working trips to New York and Berlin. If there is a bar, club or room in Sydney with a grand piano in residence, chances are Stephen has been booked to play on it.

www.ScoopFX.com The ScoopFX Music School situated in Sydney's North West, comprises Stephen and his wife Roxanne Kiely. Both are accomplished singers, musicians, performers and song-writers; who bring a wealth of knowledge to their lessons in vocal development, piano, guitar, bass guitar, music theory, song-writing, studio production, camera technique and staging.

Margaret Brandman

Dr. Margaret Brandman has been teaching piano, musicianship, ear-training, theory, composition and improvisation in a distinguished career spanning over 40 years. Margaret is also a composer of works for voice, piano and instrumental ensembles. In addition she has devised her own 'Contemporary' series of holistic teaching materials, for piano, theory and ear-training. In 2003 she was selected by the International Biographical Society(UK)as International Woman of the Year for Services to Music. In 2012 she received the WPTA Diploma of Excellence for her presentation at the World Piano Teacher's conference in Serbia. Her clientele includes beginners, advanced students and teachers who attend her Professional Development workshops.

Combining her compositional interests with her interest in music education- Margaret has devised many music texts including :

* the Contemporary Piano Method and the supporting publication Pictorial Patterns for Keyboard Scales and Chords
* the Contemporary Theory and Chord Workbooks
* the Contemporary Aural Course (audio and workbook series) and
* the High School Text book - Accent on Music.

The educational materials feature a simplified interval approach to reading,combined with pattern recognition which allows students to become efficient readers in a very short time. (taking the hard work out of learning the piano!) The materials feature many accelerated learning techniques including the use of colour coding to simplify previously difficult topics. (Everyone enjoys this!) These techniques also enhance the ability of students to gain a harmonic understanding of all styles of music from classical to jazz and contemporary and to gain skills in ear-training. (This saves time and effort and allows the fingers to find the right notes by being guided by the ear).

Margaret has composed many original works to demonstrate points made in her music education materials. Several of her works are listed in both the AMEB and ANZCA syllabi as set works. Her concert works for piano-instrumental combinations and orchestra receive regular live and recorded performances internationally.

Phone for an appointment: 0414 185 193