Patsy Toh

Educated at Westonbirt School, Gloucestershire, she was awarded a music scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 16. While there, Patsy studied the piano with Harold Craxton and composition with Manuel Frankl, and won many prizes including the Walter MacFarren Recital Diploma Gold Medal and the Royal Overseas League Competition. After graduation, she went to study with Yvonne Lefebure at the Paris Conservatoire of Music, where she gained her Premier Prix.

She has been teaching at the Academy since 1975 and was made a Fellow in 1995. She is a regular Visiting Professor to music conservatories in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. Patsy has taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Chetham’s Summer School, and the Oxford and North London Music Festivals. Her chamber music activities have included the festivals in Aspen, Colorado, Prussia Cove, and Aldeburgh.

Patsy’s performances have taken her across the world, from the UK, Spain, Germany, France, Denmark, and Sweden, to South Africa, the USA, and the Far-East. Patsy regularly acts as an adjudicator for competitions and festivals both locally and abroad. Her students regularly win prizes and awards in competitions and she has become a well-respected and distinguished musician/teacher in the profession.

Musicians she has worked with, and whom she has been inspired by, include Alfred Cortot, Dame Myra Hess, and Aube Tzerko in the USA (a pupil of Artur Schnabel). She lives in London and is married to the pianist Fou Ts’ong.