North London Colourstrings Centre & Conservatoire , 76 St James’s Lane, N10 3RD ©  Deborah Harris 2011

Stephen Baron studied music at Southampton University and piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His passion for music was fired early on with his father, a professional violinist, playing chamber music at home every weekend, introducing him to music via Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale and Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges (unusual choices but great children's pieces!).

For 15 years, Stephen lectured in adult education; at the same time, he was a frustrated piano teacher, unable to find coherent ways of teaching. Then, in the early 1990s, he discovered Colourstrings and began teaching at the NLCC in 1993.  The inspirational ways of Colourstrings made piano teaching not just possible but hugely exciting. This in turn led to him composing pieces for children, something that had previously held no fascination for him at all.  To date, he has written six books of piano music for children and is now expanding into musical composition for adults.

Besides teaching, Stephen has enjoyed a varied career as a performer.  He was part of a double bass-piano duo which performed widely, has accompanied numerous instrumentalists and singers in concert and now specializes in piano music performances for children which include a strong theatrical element.  He has taken his shows to schools over much of the British Isles.

Stephen lives locally with his Finnish wife, Aila (a homeopath). He has two grown up children, Olga and Nicky (who play respectively violin and trumpet) and he enjoys swimming, mountain climbing and reading fiction.

Stephen Baron

Stephen Baron