Ellen Batzdorf Music Lessons

I started teaching at age 15 in England, having played duets with a singer friend, whose father wanted me to teach his younger daughter. We were part of a cohort of girls at my school who spent every spare moment at school during lunch time etc. playing duets and various ensembles at school competitions.

After a few years with the school piano teacher I began to study with Harold Craxton, who was at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and well-known in England as a teacher and throughout the piano world also for his edition of the Beethoven piano sonatas (which is still available at the Music Teachers Association of California meetings, most years). I received my LRAM (Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music) certificate in 1952, shortly before moving to northern England with my first husband, who died five years later.

I taught private piano lessons and school music in England for a number of years before marrying an American and coming to Los Angeles, where I started teaching privately in my home in 1963. I have been a member of MTAC WLA for many years, and was president for a term in the early 1980's. My students took part in the Certificate of Merit examinations at all levels, and enjoyed playing in the recitals of our organization, as well as in the workshops and recitals in my home. I am fortunate in having a large room suitable for music, with 2 Steinway grand pianos.

My most recent "cohort" of students all started at more or less the same time, and therefore graduated from high school at approximately the same time. That is the reason that I have room for new students, if I decide to continue to teach.

I should say that my interest has always been in classical music and I found teaching very rewarding for the most part, with a varied and lively lot of children passing through my studio over the years.