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The English-born Australian pianist, Piers Lane, studied with Nancy Weir at the Queensland Conservatorium, Bela Siki in Seattle and Kendall Taylor and Yonty Solomon at the Royal College of Music in London.
Piers Lane made his debut in broadcast recital for ABC aged 12. He has a flourishing international career which has taken him to more than forty countries, including the USA, France, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Italy, India and New Zealan. He made tour of four Latin American countries in 1989. In 1990-1991 season he made visits to Cyprus and Morocco, concerts in the UK, two vistis to Australia and engagements in France and South America. He played Bliss Piano Concerto at the 1991 Promenade Concerts.
Piers Lane's His concerto repertoire exceeds 75 works. He has played with all the ABC and BBC orchestras, the Aarhus, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra; Philharmonia Orchestra; Kanazawa Ensemble, City of London Sinfonia, London Festival Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and BBC Phiharmonic, among others. Leading conductors with whom he has worked include Andrey Boreyko, Sir Andrew Davis, Richard Hickox, Andrew Litton, Sir Charles Mackerras, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Maxim Shostakovich, Vassily Sinaisky and Yan Pascal Tortelier. Festival appearances include Bard in New York State; Elverum and Trondheim in Norway; Llandeilo and Petworth in the UK; Como Autumn Music in Italy; The Ruhr and Schloss Vor Husum in Germany; La Roque d'Anthéron and Paris Chopin in France and Valledemossa Chopin in Mallorca. He was five times soloist at the BBC Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall.
Piers Lane is also in great demand as a recitalist and chamber music player. He has played frequent recitals on the BBC and chamber concerts with Kathron Sturrock, the New Budapest Quartet, Alexander Baillie and Jullian Lloyd Webber. He gave recital at the Wigmore Hall in London in 1991, with Schnittke Variations on a Chord and Improvisations and Fugue, with music by Frédéric Chopin and Sergei Rachmaninov. Contemporary repertoire includes Dave Heath's Piano Concerto.
Following the success of his New York debut at Lincoln Center in 2004, Piers Lane was re-invited to Lincoln Center in spring 2006, when he played the mighty Bliss concerto with the American Symphony Orchestra and gave a solo recital; he also took part in chamber music concerts at New York's legendary Bargemusic. Recent and forthcoming European highlights include concerto appearances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; London Philharmonic Orchestra; Hallé Orchestra and Ulster Orchestra; a solo recital at Symphony Hall Birmingham for the BBC and a three concert series entitled Metamorphoses at Wigmore Hall.
Now Piers Lane has added a new dimension with his appointment as Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. In addition to this commitment, in 2007 he plays a W.A. Mozart concerto with The Queensland Orchestra and L.v. Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and The Queensland Orchestra. As well as solo recitals in Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane and Melbourne; his Australasian engagements include a ten concert tour with the Australian String Quartet. Recent collaborations have included Musica Viva tours of Australia with soprano Cheryl Barker, baritone Peter Coleman-Wright and violist/composer Brett Dean and performances with Anne Sofie von Otter and Bengt Forsberg in Malmö, Stockholm and the Bergen Festival. This year (2007) Piers Lane continues his long-standing partnership with British violinist Tasmin Little in a UK recital tour of fourteen concerts.
Piers Lane’s extensive discography includes music by Dmitri Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Schnittke, with Alexander Baillie; Moskowski and Paderewski concertos, Johannes Brahms Piano Quintet (Hyperion); Recitals with violinst Tasmin Little. His recordings on the Hyperion label include much admired recordings of rare Romantic Concertos, the complete Etudes and Preludes by Scriabin and transcriptions of J.S. Bach and Strauss, along with complete collections of Concert Etudes by Camille Saint-Saëns, Moscheles and Henselt, and transcriptions by Percy Grainger. In 2005 Hyperion released the original version of the Delius Concerto, coupled with Ireland's Concerto and Legend, as well as Stanford's Piano Quintet with the Vanburgh Quartet. In 2006 he recorded concertos by Alnaes and Sinding with the Bergen Philharmonic, conducted by Andrew Litton and songs by Delius with soprano Yvonne Kenny. He has also recorded for the BMG, Classics for Pleasure, Decca, EMI Eminence, Lyrita and Unicorn-Khanchana labels.
For BBC Radio 3, Piers Lane wrote and presented the popular 54-part series The Piano and regularly presented BBC Legends. In 1982 he was chosen as Royal Overseas League Outstanding Muscian of the Year. In 1994 he was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, where he has been a professor of piano since 1989. |
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