Simon Lepper

Simon read music at King’s College Cambridge and studied piano accompaniment with Michael Dussek at the Royal Academy of Music. He has recently been appointed professor of piano accompaniment at the Royal College of Music and is the official accompanist for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize.

Current and future plans include a USA tour of Wolf Spanisches Liederbuch with Angelika Kirchschlager and Ian Bostridge; recitals at Wigmore Hall, London with singers Karen Cargill, Sally Matthews, Andrew Foster-Williams, Christopher Purves, Malin Christensson and violinist Carolin Widmann, with whom he will also appear in Amsterdam, Paris and Madrid and recitals at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam with Sally Matthews and Karen Cargill and at the Opéra Comique, Paris with Felicity Palmer.

Recent appearances have included Schumann Dichterliebe and the Schubert song cycles with Mark Padmore throughout the UK; recitals with Angelika Kirchschlager at the Verbier Festival, Switzerland and in Leeds and Ghent; a recital with Sally Matthews at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; a recital with Stephen Genz and Lucy Crowe for the ‘December Nights’ Festival in Moscow; Schubert Schwanengesang with Christopher Purves at the Howard Assembly Room at Opera North; a theatre project on the madness of Ophelia with Cora Burggraaf at de Doelen, Rotterdam as well as recitals with singers Felicity Palmer, Anna Stephany, Robin Tritschler, Elizabeth Watts, Allan Clayton, Marcus Farnsworth, Nicole Cabell, Stephan Loges and Lawrence Zazzo.

Recording highlights include Debussy Songs with Gillian Keith on Deux-Elles; Warlock Songs with Andrew Kennedy on Landor Records and Feldman, Zimmerman, Xenakis and Schoenberg with violinist Carolin Widmann on ECM.

As a student, Simon won every major award for piano accompaniment including the Gerald Moore Award as well as the accompanist prizes in the Kathleen Ferrier and Royal Overseas League competitions.