Welcome to my website! I’m Leila, the founder and owner of The Emlyn Roberts School of Music.
Having grown up in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, I was enrolled in electronic keyboard lessons at a local music school by my parents when I was 7 years old and I loved it! My musical education evolved over many years from there, completing Grade 8 and a DipLCM (London College of Music) and swiftly moving on to working my way through ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) piano Grade 8 and beyond to performance and teaching diplomas!
After 18 years of playing experience in music concerts, festivals, exams and a BA Hons Degree in Music and Humanities, I took the leap and established The Emlyn Roberts School of Music in 2010 and have never looked back! The school was named after my grandfather Emlyn, a part time clerk for the Coal Board who was also a piano teacher with a real passion and talent for music and teaching! One of my grandfather’s biggest sources of inspiration was the music of composer and musician Sir Henry Walford Davies (of whom my father was subsequently given the middle name Walford as a result!), whose music and works he and my nana were very fond of.
After passing away in 1958 at the age of 52, my grandfather Emlyn’s name is one I now want to make known to as many people as possible as a source of inspiration for my teaching and passion for piano and music.
Some of my earliest memories of learning to play piano are playing the piano down the phone to my great-grandmother and of my nana (Kathleen Roberts) sitting next to me at the piano in my parents house while I played her “The Rose” by Amanda McBroom (made famous after it was sung by Bette Midler). Those are memories created through my learning to play piano, something I am proud to say I am now a part of creating for the students that I now teach and their families!