Amber Tarling
IN-PERSON LESSONS
Growing up, Amber Tarling was fortunate to have had access to piano lessons at an early age. From the start, it was obvious that music would always be a part of her life. Finishing her Royal Conservatory formal training at age 15, she began teaching group piano lessons and opened the doors to her private home studio in 2005, where she presently teaches. She received her Associate of the Royal Conservatory (ARCT) Teacher’s Pedagogy Diploma in 2007.
As a creative and empathic person, Amber loves the opportunity to collaborate and work with differing ages, abilities, and personalities. She found her calling when she completed her bachelor’s degree of Music Therapy at Capilano University in 2003, with a specialty in improvisation. She spent several summers working as the head Music Therapist at Camp Towhee in Haliburton, Ontario, a residential therapeutic camp for children and youth with learning disabilities and related psychosocial challenges, and taught primary music for Urban Academy in New Westminster, BC. She also worked for several years in Port Moody, British Columbia with Skylark Therapy, a multi-faceted
therapy Centre for children with developmental delays and speech impairments, and currently is contracted as the Music Therapist with the Ridge Meadows Child Development Centre, working with families with neurodiverse children and those facing mental health challenges.
Amber identifies most as being a mom to her three kids, ages 9, 13, and 16. She values honest, meaningful, caring, and humourous interactions with young people, and believes that all children deserve the right to have music in their lives. She is a member and tenor section leader of the barbershop acapella group, Lions Gate Chorus, an international 2nd place chorus of 100+ women. They were most recently featured on Canada’s Got Talent in 2021.
In her spare time, Amber enjoys hiking with her husband and kids, reading, gardening, and caring for their many pets; a dog, two cats, three rabbits, four fancy rats, and a partridge in a pear tree (just kidding.)