Mauranui
Music

Richard van Oosterom Principal at Mauranui Music

Richard has spent his life in music, writing and performing and teaching. He has been teaching piano in Edmonton for the past 12 years.
 
He is a Dad with two children, aged 17 and 22. Richard knows teaching, and in particular, home-schooling. He home-schooled his son to high school level and his daughter part time. He also has a strong background in leadership development, the rigour from which he brings to each lesson he teaches.
 
When not busy with teaching piano, he currently write songs and music cues for film and TV.

Richard graduated B. Mus. in harmony and composition from Auckland University (NZ) during which time he wrote a considerable amount of music for theatre. He studied composition again at Master's level at Calgary University in the mid-1990s.

Before Richard came to Canada, he worked for Zomba Music in London doing in-house arrangements and lead sheets for artists such as Iron Maiden, Twisted Sister, Thomas Dolby and Billy Ocean as well as "singing for his supper" as a gigging musician.

After moving to Canada (Peterborough, Ontario), amongst other things Richard was one of the founding members and directors of the Peterborough Folk Festival (late 80s/early 90s and still going strong!) as well as the founder/director of Writers-in-the-Round, a monthly songwriter's showcase.
 
More recently Richard has taught music at Garneau Early Learning Centre in Edmonton (a move inspired by being a Dad) and now teaches piano for a living (a move inspired by being around his young and (now) not so young children).

Currently, Richard continues to teach piano (privately) - in-home, online and home-school lessons in Southwest Edmonton, Alberta. He has also begun a new musical adventure: his second Master's degree in Music, an MA in Songwriting and Music Production, an online degree program through the University of Chichester in the UK.