Esther Knight

Esther Knight is an award winning accompanist and chamber musician. She has recently been shortlisted as a finalist in the Sing Finzi 2021 competition. In 2019 Esther completed her MMus in piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Malcolm Martineau and James Baillieu. As the winner of the Flora Nielsen Accompanists Prize for French song 2019, and winner of the Major Van Someren-Godfrey Accompanist’s Prize for English Song 2018, Esther is specialising in song recital accompaniment.

Esther is particularly interested in creativity and storytelling in song recitals; her MMus research project was a concert and essay exploring the topic and programming of streams and rivers in Lieder. In 2015 Esther took part in a project performing Grieg’s songs at Troldhaugen, Bergen, an experience which continues to inspire her.

Esther previously studied piano at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with Isobel Anderson and Graeme McNaught, graduating in 2015. During her undergraduate studies, she enjoyed many successes as a soloist, achieving ‘Highly commended’ in the Bach competition 2014 and ‘Commended’ in the Governor's Recital Prize for Piano 2015.

Educational workshops and teaching are an important part of Esther’s career; she achieved a distinction in her LRAM teaching qualification and now teaches piano at St. Catherine’s School, Bramley.