Meet the tutor

Hello, I’m Andrew Durban.

As a student at the Royal College of Music, my first professional engagement was performing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Roger Norrington and the London Classical Players — a groundbreaking concert later recorded at Abbey Road Studios.

That experience set me on a twenty-year journey performing Baroque, Classical, and Romantic repertoire with some of the world’s leading period-instrument ensembles. Over a career spanning four decades, I’ve taken part in hundreds of concerts and around fifty commercial recordings with orchestras such as the Academy of Ancient Music, the English Baroque Soloists, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Alongside performing, I’ve always loved helping students understand the structure and beauty of music. Having once struggled with theory myself, I know how important it is to make it clear, logical, and enjoyable.

Today, through Grade5TheoryTutor.com, I specialise in guiding students of all ages through the ABRSM Grade 5 Music Theory syllabus — the essential gateway to higher ABRSM practical exams — and in showing how the elements of theory fit together to make sense of the music they play and hear.

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