Heather Slade-Lipkin

Heather Slade-Lipkin is an English pianist, harpsichordist and teacher.

She was born into a musical family from Hoylake, Wirral, and by the age of six had already begun formal piano lessons with her mother Joan Slade and pianist Marie Gilcriest. Heather was soon winning many 1st Prizes at music festivals and aged 12 made her concerto debut with Mozart’s Concerto in A major and Bach’s D minor Concerto to critical acclaim.

She gained her ARCM performer’s diploma whilst still at school and by the age of 16 she had won 1st prize in the National Piano Competition thus coming to the attention of the celebrated piano professor Gordon Green, with whom she then studied at the RNCM. She also studied collaborative piano with Clifton Helliwell and later won scholarships to study with Kenneth Gilbert and Huguette Dreyfus in Paris. On graduation she was appointed to the RNCM staff as a piano lecturer, official college collaborative pianist and repetiteur and was in addition appointed visiting professor of piano at Chetham's School of Music in 1971.

Heather Slade-Lipkin, building on her earlier success in the National Piano Competition, won 1st Prize in the 1974 National Harpsichord Competition and, in addition to her critically acclaimed London debut at the Purcell Room, gained universal recognition as a Finalist in the 1978 Paris International Fortepiano Competition. She went on to perform extensively as a soloist in Belgium, France, Greece, Holland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and the USA. In addition, she was invited to appear as a soloist with the CBSO under Sir Simon Rattle and has made various radio and television programmes for the BBC. Heather’s extensive repertoire spanning the 16th to 21st centuries is reflected in her critically acclaimed commercial recordings.

Heather Slade-Lipkin’s contribution as piano professor is renowned and a number of her past students are now regarded as virtuosi. Internationally, her disciples have won major awards at International Piano Competitions such as 1st prize at the Naumberg International Competition, 1st prize in the 9th International Beethoven Competition in Vienna, 2nd prize in the Leeds International Piano Competition, 1st prize in the Bellini International Piano Competition in Italy, Gold Medal in the International Liszt Competition in Hungary, 2nd prize in the Incontro Internazionale Giovanni Pianisti di Senigallia in Italy, 2nd prize in the Internazionale Pianisti di Marsala in Sicily, 2nd prize in the Texas International Competition in USA and Education Awards in the World Piano Competition 1994 & 2000.

Nationally, Heather has nurtured an outright BBC Young Musician of the Year winner in addition to numerous first prize winners in the piano section of the BBC competition, first prizes in the Audi Musician of the Year, winners of the Julius Isserlis Prize and the Christopher Duke Award, a winner of the LPO/Pioneer prize and also winners of the Bromsgrove International Piano Competition and the Dudley International Young Musicians Platform. Her pupils have won major scholarships to the Curtis Institute, the Juilliard, the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Guildhall School of Music and Drama conservatoires of music.

Past students include Stephen Hough, Stephen Coombs, Leon McCawley, Sophie Yates, Robert Markham, Stephen Gosling, Phillip Moore, Jonathan Scott, Anna Markland, Roderick Chadwick, Jason Ridgway,
James Willshire, Faith Leadbetter, Robert Emery, Tim Horton, Sara Nicolls, Jane Ford,
Helen Sherrah-Davies, Julia Hartmann, Eleanor Meynell, Nellie Seng and Iulia Mocioc.