Aoife Mac Alister
MMus | BMus | BA | ARIAM
I am an award-winning classical pianist with over twenty years playing and a decade of teaching experience.
Over the years, I also experienced playing-related injuries which stopped me playing for a time. As a result, over the past number of years I have been engaged in an ongoing action research and continuing professional development project retraining in the Taubman Approach to healthy piano technique with the foremost experts in the world at the Golandsky Institute, New York. These studies have been generously supported by The Arts Council of Ireland.
I founded The Premier Piano Studio in order to share these incredible tools of healthy and fluent artistry as part of a comprehensive piano education to players of all ages and levels. My goal is to help students to learn these skills right from the very beginning and develop free and fluent playing from the outset, avoiding the discomfort and limitations that causes so many to give up on their dream of playing. I have a particular specialism working with adults who are just beginning or returning to piano studies after many years. I also coach and work specifically on optimising/retraining technique with pianists who have experienced injury at the piano to resolve playing-related issues (see www.aoifemacalister.com for more).
In addition to my ongoing studies in healthy technique, I studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music for over ten years where I was awarded the Gold Medal for Piano Performance with Distinction, and received the Certificate in Performance, and an Associate Teaching Diploma.
I am also a graduate of University College Dublin where I completed my Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees. My Masters in Music was completed at Kings College London and was awarded with Distinction. I have been the recipient of a number of special awards, including the Aer Rianta Young Musician of the Year prize, and have been a prize winner at national music competitions across Ireland in solo piano performance and chamber music.