Philip Johnston
Founder

Philip Johnston spent much of his spare time as a kid inventing boardgames, writing books and designing things that didn’t exist but should (so he would protest) – and then, in an event that saved him from a possible career as the mad professor in “Flubber”, had his first piano lesson at the age of 12.

By the time he was 14 , he had topped the list of scholarship holders at Canberra School of Music, been a finalist in a national composition competition, and had performed his first concerto. In the years since, he has recorded a solo album of Liszt, Rachmaninoff and his own compositions for Warner Music as a pianist in his own right, and completed his postgraduate training in music at Bloomington, IU.

At the age of 19, he had published his first book – Not Until You’ve Done Your Practice, and then in 2000, the website PracticeSpot.com to complement it. PracticeSpot quickly became a automatic bookmark for teaching studios throughout the world, attracting over 2 million hits every month.

In the years since, he has produced three more titles through his publishing company PracticeSpot Press, with plans to eventually produce an unparalleled library for music teachers – covering all the issues central to running a studio in massive but reader-friendly guides, one issue at a time.

Philip lives in Australia's capital city of Canberra, with his wife of 12 years, Katherine, and three kids – Kate, Laura and Matthew - and splits his work time between teaching, writing, taekwondo instructing, website building, composing, and giving seminars to teachers and students. So when people say "what do you do for a living?", the answer makes no sense whatsoever.

Philip is also a former runner-up in the Australian Othello Championships, has a long held ambition to play in the Australian Cricket Team (that's really not going to happen).

Henry Weber
Director, Sales & Marketing
Canberra, Australia
henryw@practicespot.com

Henry joined PracticeSpot at its inception just after completing Year 12 at Canberra Grammar School. He has a long history with computers, dating back to when he was 14 and flew solo over to the middle of the United States to work for a webhosting provider called CommuniTech.Net. Henry also owned and developed Hotspot Internet, a web design company as well as FindAScript.com, an Internet web directory for website developers.

After completing Year 12, Henry moved to Sydney to study a Bachelor of Economics at the University of Sydney, living in residence at St. Paul's College. In his three years there, Henry continued to work on PracticeSpot and develop many of the features that are available to visitors today.

Henry completed his Bachelor of Economics in 2003, with majors in Economics and Marketing. As well as continuing his work on PracticeSpot after University, Henry also develops and maintains a sales database for XTEK Ltd, as well as providing marketing consultancy to them. Henry is a keen piano player (he started learning when he was just 3 years old), having learnt from Philip Johnston for a number of years, before pursuing Jazz and Blues after school. In plays in a band called "Tex Messages" and also teaches Piano. Outside of work, Henry chases anything that is thrill seeking. He loves Formula 1 Grand Prix and has an ever growing collection of Ferrari memorabilia.