Clare Hammond

Clare Hammond, som hyllas för sina anmärkningsvärda pianofärdigheter, prisas som en "pianist med enastående talanger" (Gramophone) med "oändlig kraft" (The Times). Som mottagare av Royal Philharmonic Societys "Young Artist Award" år 2016 lyser hennes framträdanden av virtuositet.

Hon har nyligen nåttframgångar som att framföra Griegs pianokonsert med City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra och framträdanden med BBC Symphony Orchestra och Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, samt recitals på prestigefyllda platser som Aldeburgh Festival och Palazzetto Bru Zane.

Clares repertoar domineras av samtida musik, där hon har uruppfört över 50 verk inklusive stora kompositioner av Sierra, Saxton och Berkeley. Med över tjugo världspremiärinspelningar i sin diskografi, inklusive Heskeths "Uncoiling the River" och Fitkins pianokvartett, hyllas hon för sitt "skimrande pianospel" (BBC Music Magazine) på album utgivna av BIS.

Samhällsengagemang är avgörande för Clares karriär, då hon uppträder för skolbarn i samarbete med musikinstitutioner och utvidgar sin räckvidd genom barnkonserter, mästarklasser och framträdanden i fängelser och festivaler över Storbritannien och Frankrike.

Utbildad vid Cambridge University, Guildhall School of Music & Drama och City University London, var hennes doktorsavhandling inriktad på 1900-talets vänsterhandspianokonserter. Hon var en del av Philip Langridge Mentoring Scheme tillsammans med franska pianisten Anne Queffélec.

Stöttad av olika stiftelser och organisationer, inklusive RVW Trust, Arts Council England och British Council, berikar Clares åtagande för samtida musik, samhällsengagemang och dynamiska pianoframträdanden den musikaliska landskapet.

English:

Acclaimed as a “pianist of extraordinary gifts” (Gramophone) and “immense power” (The Times), Clare Hammond is recognised for the virtuosity and authority of her performances.

In 2016, she won the Royal Philharmonic Society´s Young Artist Award in recognition of outstanding achievement. Recent highlights include Grieg Piano Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Moussa and Carwithen with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Concert Orchestra, Panufnik with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, and recitals at the Aldeburgh Festival, Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice (broadcast on RAI 3), Husum Festival in Germany, and in Denmark and Norway with Henning Kraggerud.

Contemporary music is at the core of Clare’s work. She has given over 50 world premieres, including those of major works by Arlene Sierra, Robert Saxton and Michael Berkeley, and her discography includes world premiere recordings of over twenty works. In 2019, she gave the world premiere of Kenneth Hesketh’s Uncoiling the River with Martyn Brabbins and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and a further performance with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko. In 2022, she premiered Graham Fitkin’s new piano quartet with Fitkin, Ruth Wall and Kathryn Stott at the Aldeburgh Festival, and opened the Southbank Centre’s 22/23 season at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the work.

Clare has recorded six discs for BIS, most recently releasing an album of Etudes by visionary French composer Hélène de Montgeroult. A disc of 20th- and 21st-century variations was released in 2021, and received extensive critical approval for Clare’s “shimmering pianism and lightly-worn virtuosity” (BBC Music Magazine) and “artistry of the highest order” (Musical Opinion), while Crescendo (Belgium) hailed her as “one of the most exploratory pianistic personalities of our time”. She previously recorded a disc of Etudes by Unsuk Chin, Nicolai Kapustin, Sergei Lyapunov and Karol Szymanowski which won her an Opus d´Or from Opus HD Magazine and 5 diapasons from Diapason.Community engagement forms an increasingly important part of Clare’s work. Since 2017, she has performed to over 11,600 schoolchildren in partnership with Gloucestershire Music and Wye Valley Music in Schools. She frequently gives children’s concerts and masterclasses at festivals in the UK and France, and runs an ongoing series of recitals at prisons.

Clare completed a BA at Cambridge University, where she obtained a double first in music, and undertook postgraduate study with Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and with Professor Rhian Samuel at City University London. She completed a doctorate on 20th-century left-hand piano concertos in 2012. In 2014 Clare was paired with French pianist Anne Queffélec on the Philip Langridge Mentoring Scheme run by the RPS.

Clare is grateful for the support of the RVW Trust, Hinrichsen Foundation, John S Cohen Foundation, Arts Council England, Scops Arts Trust, Golsoncott Foundation, Gemma Classical Music Trust, Fidelio Charitable Trust, Help Musicians UK, Stradivari Trust, Ambache Charitable Trust, British Korean Society, Chandos Memorial Trust, Vernon Ellis Foundation, Polish Cultural Institute, British Council, and the Britten-Pears Foundation.