Joseph Issa

What is your current role?

As director of Educational Outreach at Side By Side Arts, my role is to ensure tutors deliver high quality music curriculum lessons written by me.

Additionally, I manage our relationships with our 9 partner schools, regularly meeting with headteachers to make sure we are providing a tailored service to best suit the needs of that individual school. We are a small company and we have a fun and friendly work atmosphere regularly meeting for social events outside of work.

What did you like most about your music degree?

University at Newcastle was an incredibly fun and formative experience for me. I enjoyed the social aspect and made some friends for life at Newcastle. Majoring in performance really improved my piano playing and exposed me to a lot more complex repertoire.

It has helped me successfully take students through to grade 8 level on piano. I always had an interest in music education, the education placement module I took in final year was the perfect experience for this and ultimately helped me decide to peruse the PGCE. I also fell in love with the city of Newcastle and eight years on I am still here and loving the Geordie life!

In what ways did your music degree at Newcastle prepare you for your current role?

Studying piano performance and music theory to an advanced level has undoubtably given me the confidence and expertise to teach piano to an advanced level and write our own music curriculum.

Newcastle has also provided me with a great network of musicians which as we have grown as a business, I have been able to call on by brining on more freelance tutors.