The Keys To Success

Seaford-born musician Maria Marchant is preparing for a busy few months as Shipley Arts Festival’s pianist in residence. She tells JENNY MARK-BELL that her early musical education was very much a family affair…

WHEN Maria Marchant began learning piano at six, her feet didn’t reach the pedals. Nevertheless, she was following in the footsteps of her maternal grandmother, a trained pianist for whom World War II and the demands of family life precluded a professional career. Maria’s grandmother would go on to teach her until she went to conservatoire “It was wonderful that she chose to give us her time in that way,” says Maria.

It was a musical house: Maria’s mother used to practise with her – “she made it a nice daily routine and I think that’s so important for a young child” – and her sister would join her to play two-piano works which the now 32-year-old describes as “great fun.”

A former pupil of St Mary’s Hall and Roedean (she did one A level at the latter and the other three at the former) Maria started at Junior Trinity – a Saturday music department at Trinity Laban for under-18s – when she was 16, moving on to the senior college when she was 18. There followed a masters in piano performance at the Royal College of Music.