Beloved Clara - Lucy Parham
Odyssey of Love - Lucy Parham
Biography

Acknowledged as one of Britain's finest pianists, Lucy Parham first came to public attention on winning the 1984 BBC TV Young Musician of the Year Piano Class, since when she has performed extensively throughout the UK and Europe, South Africa, USA, Canada and Russia. As soloist abroad she has appeared with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra at the Tchaikowsky Hall in Moscow, L'Orchestre Rencontres Suisse, Bergen Philharmonic, L'Orchestre National de Lille, and three UK tours with the Polish National Radio SO and the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2002 she was the soloist with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Barry Wordsworth on their six- week 50th Anniversary Tour of the USA and in 2003 she toured Mexico with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Lucy Parham made her Wigmore Hall debut in 1989, and has since appeared regularly at all the major London venues and with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Philharmonia, RTE Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, City of London Sinfonia, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Hallé and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Festivals include Brighton, City of London, Leeds Castle, Rye, Bury St Edmunds, Three Choirs, Newbury, Harrogate, Chelsea, Cardiff, Oxford, Bergen, Istanbul and the Cervantes in Mexico City.
In recent years, Lucy Parham has established herself as one of the leading interpreters of Robert and Clara Schumann. Her unique recording of their piano concertos, with the BBC Concert Orchestra/Wordsworth (Sanctuary Classics,) won the BBC Music Magazine "Critics' Choice of the Year." Her other recordings include concertos by Ravel, Franck and Fauré with the RPO for RPO Records, Rhapsody in Blue with the BBC Concert Orchestra for BBC Worldwide and with the RPO for EMI, and a solo Chopin disc for ABM. “The Romantic Piano” for Sanctuary Classics was released in January 2005 and a year later her solo Schumann CD was released on ASV.

Lucy Parham has been a frequent guest presenter for several BBC Radio 3 programmes, including and Building a Library, Composer of the Week and CD Review, as well as a contributor to BBC Music Magazine and Pianist Magazine. In 2006 she was seen on BBC 4 TV as commentator for the six programmes about the Leeds International Piano Competition. This year she was on the jury for the Final of BBC TV Young Musician of the Year and a BBC Radio 3 commentator for the Concerto Final.

Her highly successful concert "Beloved Clara" premiered in the 2002/3 Wigmore Hall Masters Series. It explores the complex lives of Brahms, and Robert and Clara Schumann told in their own words, through diary extracts and music. Recent performances have included actors Joanna David, Edward Fox, Robert Glensister, Henry Goodman, Timothy West, Gabrielle Drake, Martin Jarvis and Charles Dance. The CD of Beloved Clara (featuring Joanna David and Martin Jarvis) is available on Sanctuary/ASV. Critically acclaimed, it was also chosen as CD of the Week in both the Sunday Times and the Observer.

In 2006 she was the director of the 150th anniversary Schumann Festival, “The Poet Speaks” at Cadogan Hall, London. Events included concerts by the RPO and Barry Wordsworth, Dame Ann Murray, Stephen Roberts, Natalie Clein, “Beloved Clara” and “An audience with Dr. Raj Persaud”.

Her latest project, “Liszt – An Odyssey of Love”, premièred in February 2008 in the London Piano Series at the Wigmore Hall.

 

 
 

Genial Design