Clare Hammond (born 1985) is a British concert pianist. In 2016, she was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society's Young Artist award.
Early life and education
editHammond grew up in Nottingham,[1] was educated at Nottingham Girls' High School and studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge,[2] where she achieved a double first in music. She then undertook postgraduate study with Ronan O'Hora at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has also completed a DMA at London's City University, writing her thesis on 20th-century left-hand piano concertos commissioned by pianist Paul Wittgenstein.[3]
Performance career
editHammond has performed in concert halls and at festivals across Europe, and is regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and other European radio networks. She has collaborated with artists including the Carducci, Brodsky, Endellion, and Badke quartets, and Henning Kraggerud, Andrew Kennedy, Jennifer Pike, and Lawrence Power. Clare has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Philharmonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Warsaw Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra and Swedish Chamber Orchestra.[4]
In 2016, she was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society's Young Artist award.[5]
An advocate of contemporary music, she has given world premieres of major works by composers such as Edmund Finnis, Benjamin Attahir, Robert Saxton, Kenneth Hesketh, Edwin Roxburgh, John McCabe and Arlene Sierra.[6] In 2018 she developed Ghosts and Whispers, for piano and film, in collaboration with animators the Quay Brothers and composer John Woolrich, which has been performed at the Barbican in London and Fundación Juan March in Madrid.[7]
Hammond has a strong interest in Polish music and culture and co-curated a centenary festival for Andrzej Panufnik at King's Place in London.[8] She has toured Poland on multiple occasions, and performed at the Chopin and his Europe Festival in Warsaw in 2014.[9]
Film work
editIn 2015 Hammond appeared as the young Miss Shepherd in the film adaptation of The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett[10] and recorded the film's soundtrack with George Fenton, the Philharmonia, and the BBC Concert Orchestra.[11]
She was involved as a piano teacher in the 2011 film Hysteria and was Felicity Jones's hand double.[12]
Discography
editHammond has released a number of recordings:[13]
- Hélène de Montgeroult: Etudes (BIS Records, 2022)
- Adam Gorb: Piano Music (Toccata Classics, 2022)
- Variations – a programme of twentieth and twenty-first century variations for piano (BIS Records, 2021)
- Josef Mysliveček: Complete Music for Keyboard – with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan (BIS Records, 2019)
- Roman Palester: Concertinos – with Sinfonia Iuventus and Łukasz Borowicz (PWM, 2019)
- Robert Saxton: Piano Music (Toccata Classics, 2018)
- Art of Dancing – music for piano and trumpet, with Simon Desbruslais (Signum Records, 2017)
- Horae (pro clara) – solo piano music by Ken Hesketh (BIS Records, 2016)
- The Lady In The Van soundtrack (Sony, 2015)
- Etude – 20th and 21st-century etudes by Unsuk Chin, Karol Szymanowski, Sergei Lyapunov and Nikolai Kapustin (BIS Records, 2015)
- Reflections – piano works by Andrzej and Roxanna Panufnik (BIS Records, 2014)
- Piano Polyptych – piano works by contemporary British composers (Prima Facie Records, 2012)
References
edit- ^ Nottingham Girls' High School (24 October 2013). "NGHS alumna and pianist Clare Hammond is playing in the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall's Sunday Morning Piano Series on Sunday 17th November at 11am. Follow the link for more information :)". Facebook. Archived from the original on 11 January 2017. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
- ^ "Emmanuel College Newsletter August 2009". Emma.cam.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 14 August 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ "SJE International Piano Series 2016". Archived from the original on 1 July 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
- ^ "Clare Hammond | Pianist". clarehammond.com. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ "RPS Music Awards | Royal Philharmonic Society". 9 August 2016. Archived from the original on 9 August 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
- ^ "Clare Hammond | Pianist". clarehammond.com. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ "Ghosts and Whispers". clarehammond.com. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- ^ "King's Place programme listing". Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
- ^ "Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina". Festiwal.nifc.pl. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ "The Lady in the Van". IMDb.
- ^ "The Lady In The Van". Amazon.co.uk. 6 November 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ "Clare Hammond". IMDb.
- ^ "Discography". clareHammond.com.