About Us
Claire and Rob are graduates of the Royal Northern College of Music. The married musicians offer music lessons for every age and stage. Both Rob & Claire have over 12 years teaching experience in London and the South East and, having recently moved back to Sandbach with their baby daughter, have set about delivering the highest quality music education for all in East Cheshire and beyond.
Claire Cope
Claire grew up in Lincolnshire where she began learning the piano and flute at an early age. In 2011, Claire graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music with a First Class honours degree, having studied piano with Sallyann McLeod. In the same year, she won the RNCM John Ireland Prize and the Principal’s Prize for Improvisation. She has had lessons with Phillipe Cassard, Nelson Goener and Michel Beroff and has performed across the UK. Claire is also a bandleader, and her trio have performed at the Manchester Jazz Festival and the London Jazz Festival, as well as during the BBC Proms Plus Series which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Their EP ‘Lines’ was released on the Manchester-based Efpi label, and was well received nation-wide.
More recently, Claire performed in Andy Scott’s ‘Mancunity’ band, a commission for the 2019 Manchester Jazz Festival, and also composed the original piano score for Rob’s celebrated 2019 film about jazz trumpeter Richard Turner, ‘Richard Turner – A Life in Music’. In July 2020, Claire released her debut album as bandleader of the septet Ensemble C, where she is joined by acclaimed UK jazz musicians Brigitte Beraha, Jack Davies, Jon Ormston, Tom Varrall, Ed Babar and Rob Cope. In 2021, Claire recorded on Jemma Freese’s (Maximo Park) debut album ‘Shadow Boxer’, and in 2022 won a Marvin Hamlisch International Award in the category of Jazz Composition. She was also commissioned to compose a new work for the ground-breaking Apollo Saxophone Quartet, and this was premiered at the International Anthony Burgess Centre in Manchester in November 2022. Claire also enjoys researching and writing about music, and in 2020, gained a distinction from The Open University for a Masters in Musicology.
Rob Cope
Rob grew up in Manchester, studying saxophone and piano first at Chetham’s School of Music with James Muirhead (1998-2006) and then contemporary classical saxophone at the Royal Northern College of Music (2006-2010) with Rob Buckland and Andy Scott. From 2010-2012, Rob undertook postgraduate studies in jazz performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London. As a classical and jazz musician, Rob has enjoyed a varied and eclectic career as a performer. Highlights include Laura Jurd and Elliott Galvin’s ‘Chaos Orchestra’, Matt Robert’s Bigish Band, Andy Scott’s Group S and contemporary classical ensemble, SoundSPARK. He has played alongside musicians such as Stan Sulzmann, Gwilym Simcock, Guy Barker and Ingrid Jensen, and has also appeared with the Halle and the English Symphony Orchestras as well as with the Matthew Herbert Big Band. Over the years, Rob has enjoyed playing at venues such as The Royal Albert Hall, Festival Hall, Kings Place, The Bridgewater Hall, Ronnie Scotts, The Vortex Jazz Club, The 606 Jazz Club and Turner Sims, Southampton. He has also appeared at the London Jazz Festival, Manchester Jazz Festival, Cambridge Jazz Festival, Leeds Jazz Festival, Southport Jazz Festival and Kongsberg Jazz Festival in Norway.
As a recording artist, Rob has appeared on numerous albums, playing the tenor, alto and baritone saxophones, as well as the flute, clarinet and bass clarinet. Highlights include The Jack Davies Big Band, Flea Circus, The Reuben Fowler Big Band, Matt Robert’s Bigish Band, Phil Meadows’ Engines Orchestra, Femi Temowo (Amy Whinehouse) and the Jonathan Silk Big Band. In 2019 Rob also released his debut album ‘Gods of Apollo’ on Ubuntu Records. Alongside drummer Jon Ormston, pianist Elliott Galvin and guitarist Rob Luft, the album uses audio material from NASA’s archives to tell the story of human space exploration, from the first man made satellites in 1957 through to the final moon landing in 1972.
When Rob isn’t performing and teaching, he also enjoys making podcasts and films about music and musicians. Now in its sixth year, The Jazz Podcast, hosted by Rob and fellow musician Tara Minton, has featured over 150 incredible guests and gained over 100,000 downloads, with Sonny Rollins, Chris Potter, John Scofield and Norma Winstone some recent highlights. In 2019, Rob also produced a documentary film about the late trumpeter Richard Turner, who sadly passed away aged 27. The film was shown at the Royal Academy of Music, the Manchester Jazz Festival and the Cambridge Jazz Festival.
Passionate and experienced educators
Rob and Claire are both passionate educators, and have garnered a wide and varied range of teaching experience in the past twelve years whilst living in London and the South East. Currently, Claire works as a piano tutor for Eaton House School in Clapham Common, Casterton and Sedbergh Preparatory School in Cumbria, and at Oldham Hulme Grammar School. Her teaching experience prior to this also includes Wycombe Abbey School, Donhead Preparatory School in Wimbledon, Holy Cross Girls School in New Malden and Surrey Arts Music Hub. In March 2017, Claire was awarded a distinction level Fellow of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in piano performance, and in April 2018 became a Grade and Jazz Examiner for the ABRSM.
Rob has accumulated much experience as a peripatetic woodwind teacher, teaching predominantly the saxophone, clarinet and flute. Currently, Rob teaches at Shrewsbury School, Donhead Preparatory School and Reddam House School. In the past, Rob has worked for The Mall Prep School in Twickenham, Chepstow House Prep School in Notting Hill, Shrewsbury House School in Esher, The John Fisher School, Knightsbridge School, Southlake Primary School, as well as various music services across London and the South of England.
In addition to these roles, in 2015 and 2016 Rob & Claire travelled to Kenya with the Volunteers Foundation to assist in the establishment of a music project for children living in the Kibera slum in Nairobi. This involved setting up individual piano, recorder and music theory lessons for a number of students, as well as co-leading a choir project.
Outside of music, Rob & Claire are passionate about travel and the outdoors. They have travelled much of Europe, as well as to many parts of the USA, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Hong Kong, Kenya, Morocco, Iceland, Vietnam, and Malaysia and Borneo. Both love hiking, running and cycling, and have participated in the London Duathlon, walked the 32km Routeburn Track on the South Island of New Zealand as well as the roughly 70 mile Jurassic Coast path from Devon to Dorset. They have also cycled London to Oxford and the incredible 87km Timber Trail on New Zealand’s North Island.
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