About
A small faculty, deliberately. Every teacher here is someone the director would send her own students to.
01 · Founder & Director
Founder and director of SSAMS: a concert pianist who won first place at Con Brio 2014, and has taught in Pune for over twenty-five years.
Shirley’s full story covers her training, her awards and how SSAMS began.
Teaches
02 · Piano, Guitar & Keyboard
Sharon Manuel is a musician and educator at SSAMS, specialising in piano, classical guitar, plectrum guitar, electronic keyboard and theory of music. She was introduced to music at five by her father and her older sister, and it has shaped her creative life since.
She trained under Shirley Manuel and Samson Manuel, and has attended master classes with international musicians. She holds Grade 8 in Electronic Keyboard and Theory of Music, Grade 7 in Piano and Grade 6 in Classical Guitar from Trinity College London.
Sharon has taught for over ten years, at Rebecca Music Academy and at SSAMS. She is drawn to teaching young students and to the curiosity they bring to it, and believes in nurturing them gently and keeping the learning joyful. She prepares students for the Trinity College London examinations, and has helped organise concerts and recitals here.
Away from music she runs Label Graph, her online fashion brand. She holds a diploma in fashion design and a Bachelor's degree in Commerce.
Teaches
03 · Business Development
Johann Skaria leads business development at SSAMS Music, shaping how the school grows and reaches new students and families. A serial entrepreneur, he brings experience of building businesses and helping them scale up and expand.
His work sits alongside the teaching: building the school's presence in Pune and online, and making it easier for new students to find their way to the right teacher, so that the faculty can give their full attention to the music. He believes a music school should be as well run as it is well taught, and brings that same care to every family's first conversation with SSAMS.
Teaching at SSAMS
Long-term mentorship for music educators has been part of what we do from the beginning. If you teach music and want to teach it better, or want to teach here, write to us.
Trial lessons by appointment
Trial lessons are by appointment, with no obligation. Tell us who is learning and what they want from it, and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right school.