Piers Lane

Pianist Piers Lane commands an extensive range of solo, ensemble, and orchestral repertoire, which he has presented across more than 40 countries and captured on more than 50 discs. Although his programs frequently include familiar works by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Rachmaninov, he willingly explores pieces by lesser-known figures.

Born in London on January 8, 1958, Lane grew up in Brisbane, Australia, where both parents were pianists and his own gifts emerged early. At age 12 he delivered a recital broadcast on Australia’s ABC Radio. He pursued piano studies at the Brisbane Conservatorium under Nancy Weir. In 1977 he entered the Sydney International Piano Competition; although he did not place among the leading prizewinners, he received the award for Best Australian Pianist. Further training followed with Bela Siki at the University of Washington and, in London, at the Royal College of Music with Yonty Solomon and Kendall Taylor.

After settling in London, Lane gradually established his reputation during the 1980s. The Royal Overseas League designated him Outstanding Musician of the Year in 1982. A well-received Latin American tour took place in 1989, the same year he joined the piano faculty of the Royal Academy of Music.

His readiness to explore unconventional repertoire extended to prominent recital platforms: the 1991 Wigmore Hall program featured Schnittke’s Variations on a Chord and Improvisations and Fugue, while his 2006 appearance with the American Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Center presented the seldom-heard, extended concerto by Arthur Bliss. In chamber settings he has maintained regular partnerships with violinist Tasmin Little, cellist Alexander Baillie, and clarinetist Michael Collins.

Extensive concert tours from the 1990s onward coincided with growing attention to his recordings, notably the complete Scriabin etudes issued by Hyperion in 1993 and the complete Saint-Saëns etudes released on the same label in 1998. Lane has appeared more than 100 times on BBC Radio 3, most prominently as writer and presenter of the 54-part series The Piano.

He has contributed many volumes to Hyperion’s Romantic Concerto Series, performing works by Stanford, Parry, Sinding, Alexander Dreyschock, and other overlooked composers. Additional recordings have appeared on EMI, Danacord, and Chandos. In the twenty-first century he continued to achieve significant debuts and further releases. His 2004 Lincoln Center debut led to the acclaimed 2006 return performance of the Bliss concerto. In 2007 he became artistic director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, a post he held until 2017, and simultaneously directed the Myra Hess Day events at London’s National Gallery from 2006 until 2013. During the 2009 presentations he performed music by Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms while actress Patricia Routledge portrayed Hess in a theatrical piece conceived by Hess’s great-nephew Nigel Hess; the collaboration proved so successful that additional performances by Lane and Routledge took place across England and Europe.

Lane was appointed artistic director of the Sydney International Piano Competition in 2016. In 2020 he issued several albums, among them the 81st installment of Hyperion’s Romantic Concerto Series and the third volume of Chandos’s British Violin Sonatas Series, on which he partnered with Little. He returned to Hyperion in 2023 with Piers Lane Goes to Town Again, a follow-up to the 2013 collection Piers Lane Goes to Town; both discs contained concise encore pieces, some shaped by or drawn from popular idioms. At that point his discography encompassed roughly 60 titles.