Biography |
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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 recent seasons have included trio concerts with former BBC Young Musicians of the Year David Pyatt and Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne, recitals with violinists Madeleine Mitchell and Gina McCormack and the complete Beethoven 'cello sonatas with Sebastian Comberti. She has had a duo partnership with ‘cellist Veronica
Henderson since their childhood together in Edinburgh. Her recital
programme with Stephen Stirling, The
Romantic French Horn, has proved a popular favourite, as has her
Two Piano Duo KDKDK with Kirsteen
Davidson Kelly, performing programmes including works such as Holst’s The
Planets, Debussy’s En
Blanc et Noir, Gershwin’s Rhapsody
in Blue and Stravinsky’s
Rite
of Spring. 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. Her many CD recordings with singers have been highly acclaimed. Her debut solo album was a much praised recording of the complete Toccatas of J.S.Bach, and led to her featuring 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.
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