TOM HICKS – PIANIST
Tom Hicks is an 18-year-old pianist from Guernsey. He has recently been selected as one of thirty-five pianists to compete in the Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Competition in Utah, and will be taking part in June. He has been successful in many competitions including first prize in the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Junior Intercollegiate Competition 2011, first prize and the EPTA UK Salver in the Croydon Advanced Piano Concerto Competition, first prize in the Junior Bakst Memorial Prize for the playing of Chopin and first prize in the Chetham's Beethoven and Chopin Competitions. He has also won awards such as the Richards’ Prize for piano and musicianship and the Dennis Midwood Keyboard Prize from Chetham’s School of Music and has recently been awarded a John Bigg scholarship from EPTA UK.
After lessons in Guernsey with Mervyn Grand he gained a place at Chetham’s School of Music in 2009, studying with Murray McLachlan, with whom he is continuing on the prestigious joint course at The Royal Northern College of Music and The Manchester University. Tom also plays regularly to musicians including Christopher Elton, Peter Donohoe and John Gough. He has enjoyed many master classes from pianists including Joseph Banowetz, Michel Beroff, Stefano Fiuzzi, Ronan O’Hora, Stephen Hough, Leslie Howard, Vanessa Latarche, John Lill, Hamish Milne, Steven Osborne, Charles Owen, Dina Parakhina, Daniel-Ben Pienaar, Vladimir Tropp, Simon Trpcezici and Catherine Vickers.
He already has an expansive repertoire spanning from Scarlatti and Bach through to Shchedrin and Silvestrov and has performed in venues such as St James’ Piccadilly in London, The Royal Festival Hall in London, Steinway-to-Heaven in Padua and The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. As a concerto soloist, he is undertaking a cycle of the complete Rachmaninov Concerti with orchestras from his island home in Guernsey. Having received a warm reception and a standing ovation from audiences for his debut performance of Rachmaninov’s Concerto Nr 1, he looks forward to performing Rachmaninov’s Concerto Nr 4 with the same orchestra, The Guernsey Sinfonietta under the baton of Sebastian Grand, this July.
Tom is a skilled accompanist, having studied principally with Elena Nalimova at Chetham’s School of Music, and is an active chamber musician, receiving coaching from John Gough, Valerie Taylor, Jeremy Young and Sara Wolstenholme, alongside the Finzi Quartet. He has also received coaching from Stephen Threlfall and Mark Heron in conducting. He appears in these roles throughout the UK and in Guernsey.
