TUTORS

JAMES LISNEY
 
sustains a distinguished international career as both soloist and collaborative pianist. A prize-winning graduate of the Royal College of Music, studying with Phyllis Sellick and John Barstow, he achieved early success after gaining representation by the Young Concert Artists Trust.
He has performed as soloist with many orchestras and tours extensively throughout Europe and the USA. His debut recording of Tchaikovsky Piano Music was first choice in The Telegraph and he is recognised as a significant interpreter of the music of Schubert, with recordings drawing the highest praise.

Since 2001 he has been Artistic Director of `Schubertreise` at London`s South Bank Centre performing a complete cycle of the Schubert sonatas alongside chamber music and song by a wide range of composers and featuring many distinguished artists.

This season will see the completion of a project to record the complete duos of Beethoven and the premieres of several new works.

CHRISTINE STEVENSON

first studied with pupils of Cortot, Michelangeli and Nadia Boulanger, and was twice awarded the prize for the most outstanding student at the Victoria College of Arts, Melbourne. She furthered her studies with the celebrated pianist, Ronald Smith, and participated in masterclasses with Dorensky, Ciccolini and Perlemuter.
Winner of the Dom Polski Chopin competition, she performs throughout the UK as a recitalist and concerto soloist and has toured for the Arts Council in Australia.  She has broadcast for the ABC and BBC, and recorded Alkan Chamber Music on CD.
 
Her experience includes coaching advanced performance at Lancaster University as well as teaching in some of Britain's finest schools.  Past pupils have gone on to read music at the RCM and RNCM and at Oxford and Cambridge.

She regularly gives masterclasses and is in demand as an adjudicator.  Christine joined the staff of the Royal College of Music Junior Department in 2001.

FRANK WIBAUT

is an international pianist, recording artist, teacher and coach based in London. He started his performing career after winning the London Chopin and BBC piano competitions. He now plays in more than 30 countries and has a performed repertoire of 65 concerti with all the major British and many worldwide orchestras. He has given over 500 performances of Beethoven's Emperor concerto. His broad solo repertoire includes many world premičres and he also plays chamber music with many of the world's leading instrumentalists.

He was formerly Head of Keyboard at the Birmingham Conservatoire, Professor of Piano at the Royal College and Royal Academy of music where he also became Head of Postgraduate Performance Studies. He is now a Visiting Professor in 5 countries and he teaches regularly in Tokyo and many other cities in Japan and is a regular Professor at the Salzburg Summer Academy in Austria.

He is invited to be on the Jury of many national and international competitions and is Chairman of the jury of the annual Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition.

His recording labels include... EMI, Hyperion (voted best worldwide recording by the BBC and Gramophone), Chandos, Contour, Polydor, Regis, HNH and Cambridge (USA), Hugo (Hong Kong) and Bongiovanni (Italy). The Royal Academy has given Frank Wibaut their highest award, an Honorary RAM, for his outstanding contribution and service to music.

SIMON NICHOLLS

studied at the Royal College of Music with John Barstow and Kendall Taylor, winning many awards and prizes, and attended master classes by Paul Badura-Skoda in Germany. For ten years he taught the piano at the Yehudi Menuhin School, working with Louis Kentner and Vlado Perlemuter, and for twenty years was a professor  at the Royal College of Music,  London. He now teaches piano, accompaniment and song interpretation in Birmingham Conservatoire. He has often been a visiting artist at Dartington International Summer School, teaching improvisation, piano and chamber music.
 
He has performed frequently at London's major recital venues, at Snape Maltings and Dartington International Summer School, and toured and broadcast on radio and television in Britain and abroad. He has performed in the United States,  including at New York's Lincoln Center, and he has also played in the Czech Republic (Prague Spring Festival), Eire, France, Germany, Greece, Holland and India. He has recorded for Chandos Records and Carlton Classics, and written for many musical journals.   Compositions by Simon Nicholls have been published by Faber Music and Bärenreiter.
 
His interest in the music of Skryabin is long-standing. He has made many research visits to Moscow, and in October 2007 he gave a lecture and masterclass on Scriabin interpretation at the State Memorial Skryabin  Museum, Moscow. He has had articles on Skryabin published in the U.K., America and Russia.

KARL LUTCHMAYER
 
enjoys a career as both a pianist and lecturer and has given recitals and concertos throughout the world, working with conductors including Lorin Maazel and Sir Andrew Davis. He has broadcast on BBC Radio3 and Classic FM, and his regular recital series at the Warehouse has been received with critical acclaim.
 
A regular chamber performer, particularly with his own ensemble, Dialogos, he is also a passionate advocate of contemporary music, and has given numerous premieres and had many works written for him.
 
His research interests include the piano music and pianism of Busoni, The Creative Transcription Network and the history of piano recital programming.
 
He currently teaches on the Bmus and Mmus courses at Trinity College of Music, and is a regular guest lecturer at the Manhattan and Julliard Schools in New York, and at the Wigmore Hall.