Festival Day

Penny Sterling

Penny Stirling was born in Somerset and trained at the Royal College of Music in London. Although graduating as a pianist, her first job was as Head of Strings and she then went on to run the string department at Wells Cathedral School. After becoming Head of the Instrumental Music Service for Wiltshire, she moved to Manchester where she became Director of the Junior Strings Project at the Royal Northern College of Music. This internationally renowned course (which trained postgraduate string players to teach and 120 children to play stringed instruments) won both a Partnership Trusts’ Thorn EMI award for innovations in music teacher training and a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for the RNCM.  She was awarded Fellowship of the RNCM in 1999.

In 2004, whilst remaining as Visiting Tutor to the RNCM, she moved to North Yorkshire and became Director of Yorkshire Young Musicians, a Centre of Advanced Training for highly talented children in the area.  She has taught violin, viola, piano and chamber music at Wells Cathedral School, Chetham’s and Junior RNCM. She founded the chamber music course Young String Venture at Lake District Summer Music and was Director of the specialist chamber music course Pro Corda North. 

She often runs Professional Development days for teachers and was Course Leader for the ABRSM’s CT ABRSM both at home and in Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia, as well as Violin Seminars in South Carolina (USA), Norway, Bermuda and the West Indies. She compiled the series of “Encore Violin” books for ABRSM and published her first book with Karen Marshall: 100 Inspiring Ideas on How to Teach Music for Instrumental and Singing Teachers (Collins) in 2018. 

Penny has examined Diplomas for ABRSM and Guildhall School of Music and Drama and adjudicated for both local Music Festivals and the Junior Royal College of Music as well as Music for Youth and Young Musician of the Gulf in Bahrain.  She has a very active private teaching practice from her log cabin in the garden.