About Us

Kathy and David Blackwell are award-winning UK composers, whose music is played all over the world.

Publications for strings include the Fiddle, Viola and Cello Time series, Solo Time books (OUP), and the Violin and Viola Mix series (ABRSM). David’s piano books include The Piano Star series (ABRSM), and music published by Faber, Harper Collins and OUP. Kathy and David have presented string teaching workshops across Europe and in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Their Fiddle Time books have been translated into Chinese and published by Shanghai Music Publishing House. They have twice won the UK’s Music Industries Award for Best Education Publication and in 2017 received an ESTA UK award in recognition of exceptional services to string teaching.

Kathy Blackwell, B. Mus. (Hons.), LTCL, LGSM, studied music at Edinburgh University and continued with post-graduate studies in music at the University of Oxford. Kathy has many years’ experience of teaching violin and viola, both for Music Services and privately. She was a strings consultant for the ABRSM Music Medals, and a contributor to the accompanying book All Together! Teaching music in groups (ABRSM, 2004). Her extensive teaching experience has led her to co-author Fiddle, Viola, and Cello Time with her husband, David.

David Blackwell, B. Mus. (Hons.), studied music at Edinburgh University and then pursued a career in music publishing. He has written and edited a wide range of educational music, in particular for strings and for piano. His choral and organ music is published in the UK and America, and includes anthems, carols, pieces for upper voices and organ preludes. He was co-editor of Carols for Choirs book 5, In the Mood: 17 Popular Classics for Choirs, and the first 6 volumes of Oxford Hymn Settings for Organists.