Piers Lane

Piers Lane (born 8 January 1958) is an Australian classical pianist. He has a flourishing international career, which has taken him to over forty countries. His concerto repertoire exceeds 75 works.

His English father and Australian mother met while auditioning as piano students for the Royal College of Music. Although born in London, he grew up in Brisbane, where his mother still teaches piano. His own teacher was Nancy Weir.

He first came to prominence at the inaugural Sydney International Piano Competition in 1977, at which he was named Best Australian Pianist (he was a judge at the 2004 competition). He later studied overseas on a Churchill Fellowship.

Highlights in the past two years have included concerto performances at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center in New York with the American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein; Beethoven’s "Emperor" Concerto with The Queensland Orchestra, which received a Limelight Award for Best Orchestral Concert of 2007; concerto appearances with the City of Birmingham Symphony, London Philharmonic, Hallé and Ulster Orchestras; a solo recital in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall for the BBC; a three-recital series called "Metamorphoses" and an all-Chopin recital at the Wigmore Hall in London; and appearances in many major piano festivals in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia. He has also played with all ABC and BBC Orchestras, the Aarhus, City of Birmingham, Bournemouth, Gothenburg and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras, the Hallé, Philharmonia, Kanazawa Ensemble and City of London Sinfonia, the London, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras and the Orchestre National de France among many others. He has been soloist five times at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall. He is

Engagements in Australia and New Zealand during 2008 include a second national tour with Cheryl Barker [ [http://www.cherylbarker.be/ Cheryl Barker web site] ] and Peter Coleman-Wright [ [http://www.petercolemanwright.com/ Peter Coleman-Wright web site] ] for Musica Viva Australia [ [http://musicaviva.com.au/ Musica Viva web site] ] , concerto performances in Christchurch and Dunedin and solo recitals in Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Newcastle, Noosa and Perth.

Piers Lane is also in great demand as a chamber music player. Recent collaborations have included a Musica Viva tour of Australia with violist/composer Brett Dean and performances with Anne Sofie von Otter and Bengt Forsberg [ [http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/artist_page.asp?name=forsberg Hyperion Records Piers Lane page] ] in Malmö, Stockholm and the Bergen Festival. He continues his long-standing partnership with British violinist Tasmin Little in UK recital tours. Piers Lane is currently the Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music held annually in Townsville.

Piers Lane has an extensive discography on the Hyperion label and has also recorded for EMI, Decca, BMG, Lyrita and Unicorn-Khanchana. Recent releases from Hyperion include concertos by Eyvind Alnæs and Christian Sinding, a Delius song disc with Yvonne Kenny and a recording of Ernest Bloch’s Piano Quintets with the Goldner String Quartet [ [http://www.ingpen.co.uk/artist_detail.php?aid=84 Ingpen & Williams Goldner Quartet page] ] , which was an Editor’s Choice in the December 2007 "Gramophone" magazine and BBC Music Magazine’s Record of the Month for February 2008. Piers Lane is a well-known voice on BBC Radio 3, having written and presented over 100 programmes, including a 54-part series called "The Piano".

In 1994 he was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, where he has been a professor of piano since 1989. In 2007 he received an Honorary Doctorate from Griffith University, Brisbane.

Piers Lane is the Artistic Director of the Myra Hess Day held annually at the National Gallery in London, which this year will be on 25 November, and of the Bloch Festival to be held at Wigmore Hall, London, at the end of April 2009.

Notes

ources

* [http://www.hazardchase.co.uk/artists/piers_lane/ Hazard Chase Music Management Company_Biography]
* [http://www.pierslane.com/ Piers Lane Official Website]
* [http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/artist_page.asp?name=lane Hyperion Records]
* [http://www.answers.com/topic/piers-lane Answers.com]
*Profile, "Weekend Australian", 26-27 June 2004