Hamish Brown

Hamish Brown is a British pianist, arranger, composer and conductor based in London, UK. An award-winning and versatile artist, Hamish has performed as a vocal accompanist, chamber musician, orchestral pianist and soloist at numerous prestigious venues across the UK and abroad.

Throughout his work with many of the UK’s finest young singers, Hamish has won prizes for his performances at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, ROSL Annual Music Competition, Wigmore Hall Song Competition, Copenhagen Lied-Duo Competition, Mozart Singing Competition and Somerset Song Prize. In 2021, he performed his debut Wigmore Hall recital with soprano Milly Forrest, in a programme of Lieder, mélodies and English song.

Hamish has been a Britten-Pears Young Artist (supported by a Viola Tunnard Scholarship) and an Oxford Lieder Young Artist. He has since performed at numerous venues including Cadogan Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Elgar Room (Royal Albert Hall), Royal Festival Hall, V&A Museum, Carole Nash Recital Room, Wyvern Theatre, South Hill Park, Oxford Lieder Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Leeds Lieder Festival, Deal Festival, Arundel Festival (performing on period keyboard instruments), International Lied Festival Zeist, Klosters Music Festival and Heidelberger Frühling, and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4, BBC Four and Danish Radio (P2).

Originally from Wiltshire, Hamish read music at the University of Manchester, studying piano with Andrew Wilde, and graduating with First Class Honours. He continued with postgraduate studies in Piano Accompaniment, studying with Simon Lepper and Roger Vignoles at the Royal College of Music, where he was awarded first prizes in accompaniment for all four major RCM vocal competitions. He graduated in 2016 with Distinction. His studies have been generously supported by Knights of the Round Table, a Help Musicians UK Harrison Award, and a Musicians’ Company Lambert Studentship.

From 2018–22, he returned to the RCM as a Collaborative Piano Fellow. His fellowships were also generously supported by the Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust, and subsequently the Gilbert & Eileen Edgar Foundation and a legacy from Anthony Saltmarsh.

He has taken part in masterclasses given by pianists such as Anna Markland, Ronan O’Hora, Philip Fowke, Peter Lawson, Michael Dussek, Joseph Middleton, Graham Johnson and Julius Drake, and singers such as Dame Sarah Connolly, Edith Wiens, Elly Ameling, Susan McCulloch, Roderick Williams, Dennis O’Neill, Sir Simon Keenlyside and Sir Thomas Allen.

Hamish has long held a passion for work with innovative, challenging, multi-genre projects. Such experiences include Adding Machine (Joshua Schmidt) at the Finborough Theatre, Sideshows (Leo Geyer and Constella OperaBallet) at Sadler’s Wells, The Sound Voice Project (Hannah Conway) at Kings Place, and A Child In Striped Pyjamas (Noah Max) at the Cockpit Theatre.

Updated: 10/08/2023