Nicholas Ashton, pianist solo, chamber, contemporary piano music

Nicholas Ashton, pianist

Biography-English

Nicholas Ashton was born in Preston, Lancashire and educated at Chetham’s School, Manchester (1973-1980), the Royal Northern College of Music (1980-1985), the University of Edinburgh (1992-1994) and on postgraduate scholarships at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique Geneva (1985-1986) and the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Frankfurt-am-Main (1986-1988).

His two principal teachers were Renna Kellaway (Chetham’s and RNCM) and Joachim Volkmann (Frankfurt). He also received instruction in masterclasses and coaching with Vlado Perlemuter, Jorge Bolet, David Wilde, Joaquin Achucarro, Pierre Laurent Aimard, Rainer Hoffmann, Roger Raphael, Malcolm Binns, Clifton Helliwell and Eli Goren. Nicholas also studied composition (including classes with Richard Rodney Bennett and Gordon Crosse), harp (with Jean Bell) and harpsichord (with David Francis) during his school studies.

Following a debut at the 1980 Manchester International Festival in the city’s Free Trade Hall, Nicholas performed extensively as a soloist during his undergraduate and postgraduate studies. He subsequently worked for four years as a teacher and translator (in Frankfurt and Manchester, 1987-1990) and for one year in London as an assistant opera agent at Anglo-Swiss Artists’ Management (1991).

Nicholas resumed public performing in 1993 as a direct result of encouragement from Murray Perahia and the distinguished Schenkerian analysts Carl Schachter and William Rothstein (at the Centre for Advanced Studies, Snape in 1993); this also followed support and advice from Menahem Pressler (at the Centre for Music and Arts, Banff, Canada in 1996).

A formal public recital (in Scotland in 1995 at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall) was highly praised and resulted in regular offers to play. A live recording of a subsequent recital at this venue was brought out on CD in 1996. Since then, Nicholas has given seven solo recitals at the venue and has performed frequently throughout the UK and in Germany. He has also contributed as a performer and in interview for BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland, NDR 2 and Bayern 4, Germany, Radio Suisse Romande, Radio New Zealand, Radio Klasik Lithuania and in the USA.
 

From 2000-2022 Nicholas performed over 80 separate solo and chamber programmes for the Hamburg Chamber Arts Association (Hamburger Kammerkunstverein). He has additionally performed many times in concert series throughout the UK for music societies and universities (including at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Durham, Dundee, Aberdeen, St Andrews, Huddersfield, Leeds, Manchester, Salford, Liverpool Hope, Edinburgh Napier, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, RNCM, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire). In 2005 he gave recitals and masterclasses at Central Washington University; in 2009 Tampere University for the Applied Sciences, Finland; in 2009 the University of Tennessee at Knoxville; in 2010 again to Tampere, Finland. He performed in the Amici della Musica concert series in February 2013 in Udine, Italy, at the Salford and Edinburgh Napier University Sonic Fusion Festivals, the Obertoene Festival in Hamburg in 2013 and the Oberhafen Halle 424 concert series (2015-2022).

A première recording of the complete works for solo piano and the piano quintet by the distinguished Scottish composer Robert Crawford, with whom Nicholas worked very closely on the project, was released on the widely respected Delphian Records label in February 2008. This recording attracted very high praise in the media, including International Record Review, The Scotsman, The Herald, Musical Opinion and The Gramophone.
 
Nicholas currently works with the distingushed pianist Lithuanian pianist Lauryna Sableviciute in a piano duo entitled Re: Sono, specialising in contemporary two-piano repertoire and with recent concerts at the Academy of Music, Kaunas and the Piano House Organum, Vilnius, Lithuania in April 2023 – the latter recorded and broadcast on Lithuanian Radio Klasik 2. Re: Sono returned to Lithuania for concerts and recordings as part of the Siauliai Piano Duo Festival, performing in Siauliai and at Organum, Vilnius, in May 2024.
 
Nicholas has performed numerous works by contemporary composers (and has been commissioned to perform premiere works and received dedications), including compositions by Fabrice Fitch, Stephen Hough, Drew Hammond, John Hails, Robert Crawford, Stephen Pratt, Jane Stanley, Kenneth Dempster, Julian Wagstaff, John McLeod, Ian Percy, Graham Warner, David Thomas Duncan, John de Simone, Stephen Davismoon, Alan Williams, Alina Savanenkovaite, Diana Cemeryte and Graham Lynch.

Nicholas was a regular chamber music partner with the Edinburgh Quartet, performing with them a substantial part of the core piano quintet and quartet repertoire throughout Scotland, including at the Merchants’ Hall, Glasgow, the Music at Paxton Festivals (2009 and 2010), the Quartet’s Stockbridge Concert Series, at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh and the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh Napier.

From 1991-2020 Nicholas was Lecturer (1991-2008) and Senior Lecturer (2008-2020), Programme Leader and Admissions Tutor for the B.Mus Honours degree within the music subject group at Edinburgh Napier University, with responsibility for performance. From 2011-2015 he was Director of Quality Assurance for the School of Arts and Creative Industries at the university. Nicholas was Programme Leader for the B.Mus. Honours degree for fifteen years (from 2000-2015) and was part of the validation teams for the B.Mus in 1996 and for Honours in 1998. His carefully nurtured students have been regularly successful in competition, as postgraduates at all the UK conservatoires and in seven cases as Doctoral candidates (at the universities of Phoenix Arizona, Edinburgh, Shenandoah Virginia, Kansas State, Ohio and Toronto).  He was also closely associated with the Ian Tomlin Music Trust, involving the support and training of gifted young musicians from Malta to study at Edinburgh Napier; and the Andrew Doig Bequest, providing masterclasses, concerts and training for voice students.

Since September 2020, Nicholas has been Principal Study Tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and for principal study pianist students at the University of Edinburgh, as well as privately. He was also Examiner the for D.Perf/doctoral programme at RCS for practice as research in piano performance (2020-2024).  Nicholas has acted as Examiner for Ph.D in the areas of therapeutic applications of voice training (Edinburgh Napier) and vocal performance from a feminist perspective (Salford) and for undergraduate performance assessments at the University of Edinburgh. Nicholas was also Specialist External Assessor for undergraduates and postgraduates in Keyboard at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland for ten years (2010-2020).  He was also external examiner for piano at St. Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh (2010-2013).
 
Nicholas is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy/Advance HE (2018) and was a Teaching Fellow at Edinburgh Napier from 2018-20.
 
 
Nicholas is in demand as an examiner and adjudicator, including at The High School of Dundee, Eton College, St. Mary’s Music School, RCS and the University of Edinburgh. He was also a member of the Board of Directors for the Scottish International Piano Competition 2014. In 2015 Nicholas collaborated with the Director of the Screen Academy Scotland and colleagues in Sound Production at Edinburgh Napier University, with initial filming and audio recording (at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh) for a documentary film project concerning Chopin’s stay in England and Scotland in 1848.

Nicholas recently performed two series of themed programmes, the first of which, entitled Wasserklavier (2017-2019), centred around concrete and abstract evocations of water (with performances at the universities of St. Andrews, Edinburgh, Manchester and in Hamburg). The second themed programme, entitled Birds and Landscapes (2019-2022), explored these subjects (with performances in Hamburg, Edinburgh Fringe, Edinburgh University and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire); the concert at the Edinburgh Fringe centred around an exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery of the paintings and drawings of the distinguished artist, John Busby. Nicholas repeated this second themed programme in Hamburg in August 2022 when live performances resumed.

Further planned programmes will investigate themes of bells, fire, earth and air, with recitals at the new Laidlaw Music Centre at St Andrews, the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh in the current 2024-2025 season. Further concerts and recordings with Lauryna Sableviciute in their piano duo Re:Sono are planned for Lithuania and Manchester, including a CD recording of works they have premiered. Nicholas has also begun collaborating with his colleague at RCS, the Slovenian pianist Sasa Gerzelj Donaldson, in duet repertoire, with planned recitals for the Slovenian Embassy, Marchmont House, at RCS and the French Institute Edinburgh in 2024-25. Nicholas will be taking part in the Lake District Summer Music Festival 2025, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the festival and the life and work of its founder, Renna Kellaway.

Nicholas was a member of the Cantilena Chamber Music Festival for two years; in July 2021, with video recording from the RCS. In 2022 he was invited back for the live Festival, resuming on the beautiful island of Islay.

Nicholas studied with the widely respected music semiologist, Raymond Monelle, from 1992-1994 at the University of Edinburgh. He was also influenced by post-Frankfurt School philosophers (particularly Jurgen Habermas and Theodor Adorno) while attending lectures at the Goethe University, Frankfurt, from 1987-89.  Nicholas was the subject of a short book chapter by the Lake District writer and poet, Kerry Darbishire, in a memoir of her mother, Kay Callaghan, entitled “Kay’s Ark” (Handstand Press, 2016); in “Rough Ideas” by Sir Stephen Hough (Faber and Faber, 2019) and an autobiographical memoir by Hough, entitled “Enough – Scenes from Childhood”, published in early 2023.

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Nicholas Ashton, pianist