Education - Studies
- BMus (Performance), University of Toronto
- Certified Teacher and Practitioner of the Alexander Technique
Teaching
- Acadia University, Halifax, NS
- Euromusic, Markham, ON
Ronald Tomarelli has taught piano privately for over forty years, successfully preparing hundreds of students of all ages for Royal Conservatory examinations in piano and theory (rudiments), competitions at the local, provincial, and national levels, and CMC and auditions for universities and concerto engagements with orchestras. Mr. Tomarelli teaches the Alexander Technique privately, with students coming from close to home as well as from other provinces. His many students of Distinction and First Class Honours have gone on to complete university degrees at the bachelor's, master's, and PhD levels and are themselves now teaching and performing as accomplished artists.
Influential teachers in Ronald's career were Marietta Orlov, Greta Kraus, Stuart Hamilton, Earle Moss, and Pierre Souverain in Toronto; Jeaneane Dowis in New York City and Aspen, Colorado; Nelly Ben-Or, London, England; and Gordon MacPherson and Constance Hubley in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Ronald Tomarelli has presented workshops on piano technique and the Alexander Technique in numerous cities to local Registered Music Teachers' Associations including ORMTA in Toronto, London, Windsor, Pickering, Oshawa, and North Bay; NSRMTA in Halifax, Yarmouth, and Wolfville, Nova Scotia; VRMTA in Vancouver, British Columbia; and NBRMTA in St. John, New Brunswick.
Mr. Tomarelli has adjudicated at numerous music festivals at the local and provincial levels from coast to coast--in British Columbia and Manitoba, across Ontario, and in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, as well as for the Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and Prince Edward Island Provincials. He has also adjudicated for ORMTA auditions and final recitals.
Starting with his first CBC television appearance at fifteen, followed by a concert tour of the Maritimes at seventeen, Ronald has always incorporated performing both as a soloist and collaboratively throughout his career. Despite his busy schedule of teaching, adjudicating, and examining, he still finds time to perform actively each year. Concerto engagements have included performances of the Mozart, Grieg, Schumann, Prokofieff, Rachmaninoff, and Gershwin piano concertos. Two or three times a year he has undertaken extensive solo appearances especially in his home province of Nova Scotia; most recently in December 2012, when he performed chamber music by Ravel, and in January 2013, a solo Brahms recital in the Thomas Regan Memorial Concert at Acadia University. He has performed in many public concerts in London, England in association with the Alexander Technique, most recently in January of 2013.
Ronald Tomarelli became a Steinway Artist in 1980 and continues to maintain a close association with the company in New York. Since 2001 he has been a full-time member of the faculty of music at Acadia University where he teaches applied piano, piano pedagogy, piano literature, and the Alexander Technique. He is a valued and active member within the school of music at Acadia and has chaired committees on hiring, scholarships, applied music, recruitment, and piano proficiency.
Professional Affiliations
- Canadian Music Festival Adjudicators' Association (CMFAA)
- Nova Scotia Registered Music Teachers' Association (NSRMTA)
- Canadian National Music Teachers' Association (CNMTA)