West Wight Arts Association

Simon Lane leads a diverse musical life, performing with both instrumentalists and singers at major venues and festivals across the UK and abroad.

In 2008 he completed a postgraduate course at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied with Michael Dussek and Julius Drake, and was awarded the Helen Eames Prize on graduation. Prior to this he studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with Mark Ray and Dina Parakhina.

Simon was recently awarded the Accompanists Prize by the jury of the prestigious Royal Overseas League Music Competition 2009. He has received many other awards including the Sir Henry Richardson Scholarship administered by the MBF, a Countess of Munster Education Award, the Worshipful Company of Musicians' 'Maisie Lewis Award' (with violinist and regular duo partner Katie Stillman) and, subsequently, both the Elena Gerhardt Lieder Prize and the Brenda Webb Award (part of the Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks singing prize) at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2007, Simon was invited to take part in the Park Lane Group New Year Series at the Purcell Room, London, giving recitals with mezzo-soprano Karina Lucas and Katie Stillman to critical acclaim. He has been selected for the Tillett Trust Young Artists' Platform on three separate occasions, with violinists Katie Stillman and Naoko Miyamoto and cellist Nathaniel Boyd. Simon was also recently selected for the Tunnell Trust Award with YCAT artist Philip Higham and as a result the duo will tour Scotland in 2009/10.

Dating back to his days as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, Simon has a keen interest in working with singers and is Artistic Director and founder of City Song, a series of song recitals in London, of which Sir Thomas Allen is Patron.

Simon has played at venues including Wigmore Hall, St. George's Bristol, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, and the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, and has collaborated with artists such as cellist Guy Johnston, tenor Allan Clayton and counter-tenor Iestyn Davies. Festival appearances include the King's Lynn, Brighton, Edinburgh Fringe, Ryedale, Lichfield, Deal, Bachfest Leipzig and Lake District Summer Music festivals. Amongst his recent engagements was a performance of Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1 in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall with conductor Matthew Wood, and in past seasons he has performed concerti by Schumann and Grieg as well as Beethoven's "Triple" Concerto.

Future engagements include Leeds Lieder Festival 2009 with Martene Grimson and Jonathan Sells, Wigmore Hall with cellist Nathaniel Boyd and a series of performances in Italy with cellist Philip Higham.

Simon is a resident artist and tutor at Aberystwyth International Festival and Summer School.

Reviews

“It took only a few bars of Beethoven’s C minor Sonata from pianist Simon Lane for me to sense that I was going to hear a real partnership….”

The Strad

"an inspired partner with some highly polished playing"

Bristol Evening Post

“…...combined tenderness, wistful nostalgia and red-blooded passion in an interpretation of terrific distinction and compelling emotional force.”

The Daily Telegraph