Georgia Vale

Georgia Vale has always aspired to be a musician—even before she started playing the piano at the age of five. Later in life, the famous Yossi Zivoni described her as a “born violinist.” She studied at the Junior Royal Northern College of Music with Rudolf Botta, then Wells Cathedral School, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Utrecht School of the Arts, where her teachers included Yfrah Neaman, Jack Glickman and Keiko Wataya. She also had some private lessons with Simon Fischer.
Georgia has performed with numerous orchestras and groups. Her career includes tours with Glyndebourne Opera, two years with Phantom of the Opera in Holland, and a year with the Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra. She has also performed for the late Queen, then Prince Charles, Neil Kinnock, and others.
Georgia plays violins and violas crafted by her father, Robert Vale, who passed away in 1996. In 1998, for health reasons, she took a break from music and earned a degree in Chinese from Oxford University. A few years later, in 2003, she returned to music by teaching violin, viola, piano, and theory, as well as running ensembles such as Bromsgrove Amateur Strings.
With fresh eyes, and the experience that comes from being an examiner for the ABRSM, she began writing materials for her pupils giving rise to the Hey Presto! Series which was followed several years later by Top Ten. She has loved writing these series and particularly enjoys creating the audio tracks for the tutor books, as well as arranging music for various combinations of instruments.
Georgia’s publications are those of an experienced, passionate educationalist. On her website she writes with regard to her “Hey Presto!” books that “, when I began teaching again I couldn’t find any violin tutor books that worked for me, so I started to create my own books the way I would have liked them as a child – with an appealing presentation and basic explanations, but also pieces of music that I would have enjoyed playing. Immediately, my pupils loved the colour and illustrations and were engaged by the characters and little details like the bow bugs. The short explanations and note charts gave them the confidence to work things out for themselves – and best of all they began to be emotionally engaged by the music.”.

Other interests include gadgets, languages (she holds a degree in Chinese and has a working knowledge of several other languages), and dogs (she is the proud owner of a gorgeous border collie named Bonnie). She also enjoys walks in the Shropshire hills where she now lives, jigsaw puzzles, the colour turquoise, and dark chocolate.