Photo: Clive Barda
Piers Lane
"No praise could be high enough for Piers Lane whose playing throughout is of a superb musical intelligence, sensitivity, and scintillating brilliance." Bryce Morrison, Gramophone
Representation: General Management
London-based Australian pianist Piers Lane has a flourishing international career which has taken him to more than forty countries. In the past few years, his engagements have included concerto performances at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center; a three-recital series called Metamorphoses at London’s Wigmore Hall; the opening recital of the Sydney International Piano Competition; concerto appearances with the London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham and Hallé Orchestras among others. Festival appearances have included Bard and Newport in the USA; Bergen, Elverum and Trondheim in Norway; Como Autumn Music in Italy; Prague Spring; The Ruhr Klavierfestival and Schloss vor Husum in Germany; La Roque d’Antheron and Paris Chopin in France; Valdemossa Chopin in Mallorca.
In 2007 Piers Lane added a new dimension with his appointment as Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. He tours annually in Australia and New Zealand. In 2007, his performance of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Queensland Orchestra received the Limelight Magazine Award for Best Orchestral Performance. In 2008, he undertakes a third national tour for Musica Viva as well as giving solo recitals in Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane and Perth in addition to concerto performances in Christchurch and Dunedin.
Five times soloist at the BBC Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall, Piers Lane's concerto repertoire exceeds 80 works. He has played with all the ABC and BBC orchestras, the Aarhus, American, Bournemouth, Gothenburg and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras; Kanazawa Ensemble; Orchestre National de France; Philharmonia; City of London Sinfonia and the Royal Philharmonic and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestras among others. Leading conductors with whom he has worked in recent years include Andrey Boreyko, Sir Andrew Davis, Richard Hickox, Andrew Litton, Sir Charles Mackerras, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Maxim Shostakovich, Vassily Sinaisky and Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Piers Lane is also in great demand as a chamber music player. He continues his long-standing partnership with British violinist Tasmin Little. Other recent collaborations have included Musica Viva tours with soprano Cheryl Barker, baritone Peter Coleman-Wright and violist/composer Brett Dean, performances with Anne Sofie von Otter and Bengt Forsberg in Malmö, Stockholm and the Bergen Festival.
Piers Lane’s extensive discography includes, on the Hyperion label, much admired recordings of rare Romantic Concertos, the complete Preludes and Etudes by Scriabin and transcriptions of Bach and Strauss, along with complete collections of Concert Etudes by Saint-Saens, Moscheles and Henselt, as well as transcriptions by Grainger. Recent releases include the Piano Concerto by William Busch on the Lyrita label and, from Hyperion, Piano Quintet by Bloch with Australia’s Goldner String Quartet, an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine and Record of the Month in BBC Music Magazine (2008). He has also recorded for the BMG, Classics for Pleasure, Decca, EMI Eminence, Lyrita and Unicorn-Khanchana labels.
Piers Lane has written and presented over 100 programmes for BBC Radio 3, including the popular 54-part series The Piano. He is the Artistic Director of the Myra Hess Day held annually at the National Gallery in London and of the Bloch Festival to be held at Wigmore Hall in 2009.
Promoters please note: if you wish to include this biography in a concert programme etc, please contact Hazard Chase to ensure that you receive the most up to date version.
Email: Emily Eason
