Tickling the ivories gave Rino Grice the taste of his future career as a music school teacher.

"Music was a hobby," he says, recalling the start of his piano playing days - he was seven when he had his first lesson.

"In the '60s there were lots of pianos - I think we had three in the house at one time because people were giving them away. I started playing from there and it's been a hobby throughout my life."

Performing with the school band took Rino overseas. He played in Germany and performed in front of few famous faces including Princess Anne and Margaret Thatcher.

He had no particular ambitions after leaving school. "Music just developed into a career," says Rino. "When I was 18 I was in a pop group.

"I played keyboards and did backing vocals. We were called Vienna because of the Ultravox hit at that time, and we travelled the country."

After two years Rino decided it was time to get a proper' job.

"I ended up becoming respectable and getting a job in a bank but it was purely a gap job until I got into another band. Seven years later, and with a mortgage to pay, I was still there."

The opportunity to teach at Bradford's Yamaha Music School, then based at Woods in Manningham Lane, gave Rino the chance to turn what had largely been a hobby into a career.

Twenty years later, he's now running the school which has since moved premises to Salts Mill in Saltaire.

The move has brought Rino back to his roots; he was born in Shipley and his Mediterranean name comes from his Italian mother.

Since joining the school, Rino has continued to teach students of wide ranging ages; his current pupils range from six to 85.

A recent tour of local schools was inspired by his desire to introduce more youngsters to music and its benefits. He says musicians tend to have higher IQs as they are multi-tasking all the time - not only are they reading and translating the music on the page, they're also playing it. It also helps with social development, working with other people in groups.

Rino is saddened that music tends to lack importance in many schools.

"It seems to be treated like a second class citizen - it can be dropped at any time because it's not that important. But when you think about it, music affects everybody's lives. It is fundamentally important to everybody."

Rino met his wife, Claire Scott, a beauty therapist, in an amateur production of West Side Story at the Bradford Alhambra. Claire was singing and he was playing. As well as performing on stage - he's played the Albert Hall and London Palladium during his career - Rino has also composed and conducted.

Among the highlights were conducting at Birmingham Symphony Hall and conducting the string section of the National Festival Orchestra during a pre-match concert for the Bradford Bulls - a proud moment for Rino's father, a Bulls fan, who was watching from the stands.

One of his more unusual experiences was page turning for virtuoso violinist Nigel Kennedy during a performance at St George's Hall in Bradford.

His next big event is conducting the National Festival Orchestra at a memorial concert in Huddersfield.

Rino advises anyone wanting to become a music teacher to have the right personality and to persevere.

"Personality is very important. You could be the best player in the world but if you don't have much of a personality, or you are no good at communication, you won't make students interested," he says.

"My job with the school isn't like a regular school where children come every day regardless. They can stop coming whenever they like. They come if they want to learn something and enjoy themselves when they are there.

"It is incredibly rewarding. If you are a musician or any sort of performer, the one thing you really enjoy is the applause. You get a buzz out of it.

"If you want to be a musician, you have to be a good all-rounder. Be prepared to do absolutely anything and never say no'."

For more information about a career as a music teacher, contact the Bradford Yamaha Music School on (01274) 595954.