Our Teachers

All Music House teachers are members of the Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association (ORMTA).

Richard Benedict

Richard's experience as a guitarist and musician is varied and well-rounded. He has a BMus Performance in classical guitar from Wilfrid Laurier University (1991), where he also taught guitar master class and private students, and minored in piano. He has taught at Algoma University College in Sault Ste Marie for two years, and adjudicated in the Sudbury Kiwanis Festival. His teachers include Eli Kassner, Davis Joachim and Lynne Gangbar. Richard has performed with: Simple Partial at Loop Gallery; Rob Wannamaker, Paul Ruston and wife Nicole Marchesseau at ArraySpace; and the Gripe Ensemble at York University. Following training on the Renaissance lute with Musicians In Ordinary's John Edwards, he performed solo at the Toronto Early Music Festival at Montgomery's Inn. He presently collaborates with Nicole and filmmaker and educator Gabrielle Gillespie in the multimedia project Tuna Mind Melt, and sculpts electro-sonic gestures under the name Siamese Connection.

Richard's varied background in his musical education and experience also translates to his teaching practice. Each student is treated as an individual with specific needs and goals, whether it's mastering solo and rhythm guitar parts for a Weezer song, walking on electric bass or applying piano-based theory to a blues progression. With beginning students, emphasis is placed on basic skills like keeping a steady tempo in strumming patterns, or thorough knowledge of triads and the fretboard. More advanced students can build on that base depending on the direction they wish to take, whether that's fingerpicking, jazz comping or soloing like Jimi. Participation is encouraged at the bi-annual guitar jams, which give students a chance to perform for and with each other in a relaxed, interactive setting. Richard loves to perform the piano music of Erik Satie.

Nicole Marchesseau

Nicole has a nurturing teaching style fostering the development of students' unique musical interests, whether classical or popular in style. Her students excel at conservatory exams, regularly achieving marks in both the First Class Honours and First Class Honours with Distinction standings, and have won awards on the basis of their music compositions through the Alliance for Canadian New Music Projects (ACNMP). While many students are musically active in their school communities and beyond, others pursue learning for their own personal enjoyment. She currently teaches piano and music theory at Music House.

A member of the Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association, Nicole continues to perform and compose actively in the community. Awards for her creative work have included the 4 Talent Award for Innovation received at the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival for her film co-directed with Gabrielle Gillespie, Under My Skin: A Swarm of Bees, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Outfront: "Soundscapes" competition. Nicole has played at various Toronto venues including at the Telus Centre for the Performing Arts at the Royal Conservatory of Music as part of Nuit Blanche, at Somewhere There as part of the Leftover Daylight series, at the Gladstone Hotel, Arrayspace, as well as at various art galleries both as a solo performer and in collaboration with others. Joint efforts have included sound and photography installations with Halifax-based photographer Adrian Fish at the AWOL and Loop Galleries in Toronto, and with filmmaker Gabrielle Gillespie and guitarist Richard Benedict as Tuna Mind Melt at Somewhere There. Recently she played with Jandek at Carleton University in Ottawa and was joined there by percussionist Jesse Stewart.

Nicole holds a Bachelor of Music Composition from Wilfrid Laurier University, an MA in composition from York University and she is currently a PhD candidate in musicology at York where she studies outsider music and the guitar tuning systems of the Jandek. Mentors have included Christina Quilico-Petrowska, Nina Akhobadze, James Tenney, Glenn Buhr, and Rob Bowman.

Catherine Pickup

Catherine Pickup holds a BMus in Music Composition from Wilfrid Laurier University, and an MA in Dance from York University. She has taught piano and music theory in Toronto for the past 9 years and has a flexible teaching approach which allows her to accommodate each students' different needs and abilities. Her main emphasis is that the students learn in a nurturing environment where they are able to make personal goals and attain them. She encourages her students to explore the areas of music that interest them, whether it is the latest pop song, or taking an exam through the Royal Conservatory of Music. Catherine has held teaching assistant positions at both York University and Mohawk College.

Since graduating, Catherine is still actively composing and her work, "One Woman -- Manipulating Boundaries," premiered at the Toronto Music Gallery, included instruments she created out of scrap metal in pursuit of integrating musical movement with dance. In 2008, Catherine collaborated on a work with composer/performer Lavinia Kell Parker called "Failure is Impossible", an hour-long performance piece that combines music, dance, drama and philosophy. The work debuted February 9th, 2008 as part of the Brockport Arts Festival of Music in Rochester NY and was performed again in March as part of the Women in Music Festival in Rochester NY. The work requires them to "play" many different instruments or familial objects, as well as dance, act, recite quotes and ride a bicycle. In May of 2008, Failure is Impossible won the New Genre Award in the International Alliance of Women in Music Competition.

As a classically trained pianist, Catherine has performed the works of various composers including Eric Satie, Philip Glass, and John Cage; accompanied many instrumentalists as well as voice and dance; and has improvised on piano for Vanguard Presents, a live comedy show in Toronto. Catherine also enjoys exploring movement through improvising and has performed as a dancer in CoexisDance.

An avid cyclist, Catherine has cycled in the fundraising event Tour for Kids in 2007, 2008, and 2009 raising money for children's cancer camps and in June 2009, Catherine was one of 36 riders to cycle across Canada in the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride, the world's longest charitable cycling event on behalf of childhood cancer.

Catherine's students may contact her via email at catcatmeowww@yahoo.ca.