Our children, 8 and 12, are aspiring cellists. They’ve had the great fortune of exposure to several instruments, including piano, trumpet, hulusi, cello, ukulele, DAWs. Along the way, they’ve worked with various music teachers. On their very first lesson, both children sited Chloë as being the best music teacher (regardless of instrument) they’ve ever worked with. We found the statement bold and of course was intrigued so asked why, in what way, you’ve only had one lesson so isn’t it a bit too early to make such bold statements? Their response. Chloë is very patient. Chloë can explain complex terms in a way we understand. She encourages us. Even when we make a mistake, the way she helps us get it right, you feel like you didn’t get it wrong in the first place, there’s just a different way to play it. After a few more lessons, we explained to our children, we would like to leave Chloë a review so could say again, with a few lessons under their belt, what they appreciate about Chloë. When Chloë asked me what choice I’d made for my third and final piece to practice for my grade 1, I was struggling to settle on one, between two options. Chloë then patiently said, you know what, why don’t I play both and you can listen. Perhaps that might help. After she played both pieces end to end, for some reason, it suddenly became really obvious to me, Skye Boat Song! I love it when Chloë lets me play with her cello. It’s bigger than mine, but the sound it makes is amazing. Chloë finds different ways to help us learn notes through colours, numbers, memorisation in clever ways that we’ve not been shown before. She gives us great tips and has lots of stickers. She even once said something about using a band-aid as a trick to learn where your fingers are on the neck because of its’ texture. She’s full of tricks! Chloë is very open, we feel we can ask her anything and she doesn’t get frustrated, annoyed or tell us to focus on the lesson. Why is your cello darker in colour than ours? Instead of writing 4/4 why do they write a fancy “C” when it’s the same time signature? What makes your cello sound louder and clearer than ours, even when we play it? Chloë is learning how to build violins. When my cello tailpiece slipped, it was so cool seeing her take off all the strings, adjust the string attachment for one of the fine tuners, align everything up and put it all back together again, in what felt like 5 minutes! It was amazing. I’ve never seen anyone do that before. On top of the amazing lessons, we love our chats with Chloë. She tells us about what it was like when she was our age, learning about grades and exams for the first time, nice history stories about her amazing cello from Germany. She even remembers when she played Pirates of the Caribbean when she was in school, which is one of the pieces I’m learning. Of course, there was more both children shared, but we suspected the recommendation box probably has a word limit. Well done Chloë! A true ambassador of the art. What really hits home for us as parents is, both children now picking up their cellos at home and practicing, largely unprompted, just a reminder occasionally and off they go. We can hear the improvement in how they play. We don’t have to wrestle and bribe them to go for lessons, they look forward to it. Nothing beats brewing a coffee in your kitchen with the sound of live cello music played by your children vibrating through the house. Most important of all, they are happy. Thank you Chloë.

Chloë is a great teacher who is open to various genres of music. Her inspiring way of teaching aided me in getting my grade 7 before I left for university.

Chloë is a very patient and adaptable teacher, able to teach in ways that play to strengths of different pupils and help each of us shine in our own way.