Congratulations to our ‘Adult Learner of the Month’ (July 2026) – Claire Vane
Read Claire’s piano journey below:
“I started the piano when I was about seven, having been very ill as a child, by chance, as my father gave maths lessons for the son of the local piano teacher. In return, the boy’s mother taught me the piano. I used to watch her also playing the violin and had this deep yearning to play the violin, but that yearning disappeared as soon as I had my hands on a violin. Quite the reverse, I found myself falling in love with the piano to such an extent when we moved house, a year later, I kicked up a big fuss that I would be losing my piano teacher. One thing led to another, and I ended up as a teenager as a Junior at what was then the Royal Manchester College of Music. My love of the piano increased as the years went on and I needed three lives really to follow the three desired careers that I had in mind. I eventually went to Cambridge to study Classics and had the statutes changed to combine Modern Greek with Classics which caused an uproar.
I played through my years as an undergraduate and developed a career in Human Resources management, setting up a HR consultancy some twenty-five years ago.
I have been putting on charity concerts for the last twenty years and have learned how to raise considerable sums for the causes I have followed, such as Breast Cancer, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Muscular Dystrophy, Teenage Mental Health, Prostate Cancer (October 17th of this year) and latterly the new children’s hospital at Addenbrooke’s, Cambridge. It is immensely satisfying being able to play/ work with other fellow pianists, and grow my expertise and fundraise.
Following an amusing conversation about what I’d do if I ever won the lottery, last April following a concert, I applied to the Birmingham Conservatoire to do postgraduate study in piano performance which is what I’m now doing. I realised that I didn’t need to win the lottery!
Over the years, although there were many years when I did not play, I have had wonderful teachers – Marjorie Clementi, Penelope Roskell, Warren Mailley-Smith, and latterly, at the RBC, Margaret Fingerhut.
Becoming a Trustee at EPTA is a great thing for me as I can combine commercial skills with the world of piano, concerts and other events. I definitely would describe myself as a ‘piano nut’ and the addiction grows rather than shrinks. There is nothing that makes me happier than sitting at the piano playing Mozart and Schubert. That is not to denigrate the other great composers as I could list so many.
In 2014, I became friends with another Pianist and we decided to develop a piano course combining all the best elements of every course we had attended. This course, Pianissimi, has now just had its 14th iteration and our course has been a tremendous success from the participants’ point of view who are adult returners and learners, and it is marvellous to see them advance on their piano journey.
The piano now takes up the bulk of my life and is something I would not swap for all the world”.
