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Katharine Durran
has developed highly acclaimed parallel careers as solo pianist,
exponent of new music, chamber musician and song accompanist.
She gave her
first concerto performance in
Edinburgh
at the age of 11. After reading Music at St Catharine's College,
Cambridge, she studied at the Royal College of Music under Kendall
Taylor and Geoffrey Parsons. More recent studies have been with Joyce
Rathbone.
For
ten years she was pianist of the award-winning group Tapestry.
Her other ensembles include Onyx (clarinet, 'cello and
piano) and the Giovanni Piano Trio.
Highlights
of last season included trio concerts with former
BBC
Young
Musicians of the Year David Pyatt and Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne, recital
tours with violinist Madeleine Mitchell and the complete Beethoven
'cello sonatas with Sebastian Comberti.
Other recent projects include performing late Beethoven alongside J.S.
Bach’s Goldberg Variations
and the commissioning of three new extended settings for mezzo and piano
of the poetry of Friedrich Rückert. Her groundbreaking enterprise with
Alison Smart of the BBC Singers, New French Song, has
involved working with twenty of Britain’s leading composers, and has
resulted in the creation of a whole new song recital repertoire
for the 21st century.
Over the next three seasons she will be presenting the
complete Beethoven violin sonatas in collaboration with violinists
including
Gina McCormack, Madeleine Mitchell and Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne.
She has featured in three Piano Magazine symposiums,
discussing J.S. Bach, British piano music and issues relating to
women pianists of today.
As the commissioner of new works for solo piano and for
ensembles she has performed numerous premières on
BBC
Radio
3 and on television, as well as discussing the rôle of song accompanist
in today’s musical society. Tracks from her CDs have often been
featured on BBC radio programmes, including Night Waves, Composer
of the Week, In Tune, Midnight Oil
and Private Passions.
Her debut solo album is a highly acclaimed recording of
the complete Toccatas of J.S.Bach. Her many CD recordings with singers
have also been highly praised. Future recording projects include Scotland
in Lieder and New Rückert
Lieder.
2007-08
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