Postgraduate

Advanced Instrumental Studies

This specialism is for pianists intending to focus intensely on performance and who can demonstrate potential for a career as a solo or chamber player. You will receive 60 hours of private principal study tuition over the year, as well as the opportunity to play in masterclasses and weekly performance platforms.

Accompaniment

This specialism is for students who want to develop a career in collaborative pianism. It combines individual technical work with your one-to-one professor, class work on specific skills such as continuo playing, orchestral reductions, coaching and languages, and duo & ensemble work in a variety of situations.

Graham Johnson, Senior Professor of Accompaniment, takes regular public and private masterclasses, covering both the literary and musical background to various composers. Previous projects include a series of concerts celebrating Britten’s birthday in 2001, a Wolf Festival for that composer’s centenary in 2003, and a concert series featuring the songs of Ralph Vaughan Williams in 2008. 2012 sees the inauguration of The Song Guild, a small group of singers and pianists working with Johnson in song repertoire, and the School will be celebrating Poulenc’s anniversary in 2013 with a recital series of his mélodies in the autumn.

Iain Burnside has initiated several innovative performance projects for the course combining music and drama, and Gordon Back regularly directs instrumental concerts. All pianists have weekly piano lessons and a series of classes on various accompaniment skills. Recent masterclasses have been taken by Martin Katz, Malcolm Martineau, Julius Drake and Ralf Gothoni.

There is a wide range of performance opportunities on the course, particularly at the weekly vocal and instrumental platforms. Successful students who progress to Part Two may be eligible for scholarship support, and you will be offered professional accompaniment work to help you through your first year in the profession.

Chamber Music

This is a specialised route where the main focus is on the development of core chamber music skills. Regular coaching is provided by a mixture of departmental staff and visiting artists. This route is designed both for individual students and existing groups, already having considerable chamber music experience, so that they can develop their skills to a professional level.

Other areas of study that Keyboard players may be interested in:

Repetiteur Training 

Historical Performance Studies 

Chamber Music Studies

Recent Department Highlights 

• Recent masterclasses by Lang Lang, Richard Goode, Imogen Cooper, Simon Trpceski, Christian Blackshaw, Paul Lewis, Ronald Brautigam, Leon Fleisher, Aleksandar Madzar, Rolf Hind 
• Faculty Artist Series recitals by Ronan O’Hora, Martin Roscoe and Caroline Palmer
• Student pianists performing as soloists with Chamber and Symphony Orchestras, and on the Barbican stage preceding LSO concerts as part of Guildhall Artists at the Barbican 

Recent Student Successes

Students in the department have been prize winners in the following competitions:

• Leeds International Piano Competition
• Chopin International Piano Competition
• Rio de Janeiro International Piano Competition
• James Mottram International Piano Competition
• Citta di Cantu International Competition
• Enschede International Piano Competition
• Esther Honens International Piano Competition
• Scottish International Piano Competition
• Dublin International Piano Competition
• Royal Overseas League, Young Concert Artists Trust and Kathleen Ferrier Competition

Alumni include 

Tom Poster (Piano 2004) 
Sa Chen (Piano 2001) 
Paul Lewis (Piano 1994) 
Lucy Parham (Piano 1989)