It is with great pleasure that we introduce our adjudicator for 2021
June Armstrong
“Composing is a wonderful way to learn about how music is ‘put together’, to learn about how to construct musical sentences, to phrase and to punctuate, but more importantly, how to makes sounds which please the ear and delight the senses.”
June Armstrong
“Composing is a wonderful way to learn about how music is ‘put together’, to learn about how to construct musical sentences, to phrase and to punctuate, but more importantly, how to makes sounds which please the ear and delight the senses.”
June Armstrong is a composer and piano teacher living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. June has had compositions included in all the major UK and Irish examination board syllabi and has received commissions from ABRSM, Red Leaf Pianoworks in Canada, Hal Leonard in the USA. She specialises in composing music focusing on atmospheric playing, using colour, shape, and impressionistic sounds rather than traditional harmony.
Musical background
June Armstrong studied music at Queen’s University Belfast, graduating with a BMus and an MA in composition and twentieth century analysis. After working as a peripatetic violin tutor with the City of Belfast School of Music, she moved with her husband to the Albany region of New York State, where she lived for six years, during which time both her sons were born.
Piano Teaching
On returning to live permanently in Belfast in 1984, she began teaching both her sons to play the piano and discovered a previously unsuspected passion for the piano and for piano teaching. This quickly led to a diploma in piano teaching and a full-time career of over 30 years.
After beginning to teach the piano, she very quickly rejected the examination system, instead focussing on the development of informed stylistic playing and confidence in performing. Most of her pupils choose to sit one higher grade examination before leaving school.
EPTA Belfast
In 1994 she co-founded the EPTA (European Piano Teachers’ Association) Belfast branch, which is now a flourishing organisation providing CPD for local piano teachers, and performance and development opportunities for pupils, including one of the largest UK entries in the national annual EPTA UK Piano Competition. Her pupils are regular high achievers at the EPTA Piano Competition, music festivals and at examination level.
Composition
A desire to compose piano music focussing on atmospheric playing, developing both a tonal palette and pedalling technique led to the creation of Strangford Sketchbook, which was completed in 2010. She has now published 18 volumes of piano music from beginner to advanced level. June’s compositional technique is largely improvisatory, developing from experimentation with tonal effects and has been influenced by a passion for jazz and improvisation, to which she was introduced in 2003.
Interests
June also plays the violin and enjoys playing in the local community symphony orchestra and in the Belfast Bach Cantata Consort as well as being an avid chamber music player.
Here is a selection of June's publications, all of which can be found on her website www.junearmstrong.com
Alphabet
Toy Box
Safari
Paint Box
Sea World
Enchanted World
Puffin Island
The Nine Glens of Antrim
Stars
Six Little Preludes and Fugues
Magical World
Dreams and Dragons
The Girona Suite
Causeway Coast Fantasy
Musical background
June Armstrong studied music at Queen’s University Belfast, graduating with a BMus and an MA in composition and twentieth century analysis. After working as a peripatetic violin tutor with the City of Belfast School of Music, she moved with her husband to the Albany region of New York State, where she lived for six years, during which time both her sons were born.
Piano Teaching
On returning to live permanently in Belfast in 1984, she began teaching both her sons to play the piano and discovered a previously unsuspected passion for the piano and for piano teaching. This quickly led to a diploma in piano teaching and a full-time career of over 30 years.
After beginning to teach the piano, she very quickly rejected the examination system, instead focussing on the development of informed stylistic playing and confidence in performing. Most of her pupils choose to sit one higher grade examination before leaving school.
EPTA Belfast
In 1994 she co-founded the EPTA (European Piano Teachers’ Association) Belfast branch, which is now a flourishing organisation providing CPD for local piano teachers, and performance and development opportunities for pupils, including one of the largest UK entries in the national annual EPTA UK Piano Competition. Her pupils are regular high achievers at the EPTA Piano Competition, music festivals and at examination level.
Composition
A desire to compose piano music focussing on atmospheric playing, developing both a tonal palette and pedalling technique led to the creation of Strangford Sketchbook, which was completed in 2010. She has now published 18 volumes of piano music from beginner to advanced level. June’s compositional technique is largely improvisatory, developing from experimentation with tonal effects and has been influenced by a passion for jazz and improvisation, to which she was introduced in 2003.
Interests
June also plays the violin and enjoys playing in the local community symphony orchestra and in the Belfast Bach Cantata Consort as well as being an avid chamber music player.
Here is a selection of June's publications, all of which can be found on her website www.junearmstrong.com
Alphabet
Toy Box
Safari
Paint Box
Sea World
Enchanted World
Puffin Island
The Nine Glens of Antrim
Stars
Six Little Preludes and Fugues
Magical World
Dreams and Dragons
The Girona Suite
Causeway Coast Fantasy
