Katharine has been a member of the keyboard faculty at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire since 2008 and has served as Senior Lecturer in Piano and Piano Pedagogy since 2018.

She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate pianists across a range of programmes, combining a structured technical approach with a strong emphasis on musical individuality. Alongside her one-to-one teaching, she contributes to assessment and examining across the department.

In addition to her core teaching, Katharine delivers a series of classes in piano pedagogy to second-year undergraduate pianists. She is also the programme lead for the IBA Performing with Confidence programme, a bespoke initiative designed to support students in developing confidence and resilience in performance. Since its introduction in 2019/20, the programme has received consistently strong student feedback and has played a significant and important role in supporting performance confidence among participants.

Student feedback includes:

“As someone who tends to roll their eyes or get irritated by hyperbolic reviews and statements, I can say with sincerity that learning the IBA framework has been life changing. The level of self-understanding and of others helps not only in my professional life but also in my private one, and increasingly so as I continue to engage with it. I would highly recommend the IBA programme to anyone.”

Katharine’s students have gone on to build varied and successful careers within the music profession, both in the UK and internationally, as performers and teachers. Graduates have pursued further study at institutions including the Liszt Academy (Budapest), Ithaca College School of Music (New York), the University of Auckland, the Royal College of Music (London), and the Crane School of Music (USA).