Krystal Tunnicliffe

Australian pianist Krystal Tunnicliffe enjoys a varied career as a collaborative pianist and music educator. She is a Samling Artist, Britten-Pears Young Artist, Ryedale Festival Young Artist, and an Oxford Song Young Artist, and she is a staff pianist in the Junior department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. With duo partner Siân Dicker, she has performed at the Oxford Song Festival, LIFE Victoria Festival (Barcelona), International Lied Festival (Zeist), Aldeburgh Festival, Ryedale Festival, on BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune’, and they opened St John’s Smith Square’s 2020 Autumn Season. They are looking forward to the release of their debut disc, ‘The Complete Songs of William Walton’, with Delphian Records in October 2024. In 2019, she won the prize for the best accompanist in the heats at Melbourne National Liederfest, and with Harriet Burns she was a finalist at the Maureen Lehane Awards. Other recent highlights include performances with Brindley Sherratt and Nicky Spence as part of the Ludlow English Song Weekend and Ryedale Festival respectively.

Krystal completed Bachelor and Masters degrees (with distinction) from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and the Guildhall School respectively, before undertaking a Junior Fellowship at the Guildhall School. She studied with Glenn Riddle and Andrew West, and now continues her studies privately with Christopher Glynn. She is also a graduate of the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden bei Wien.

Krystal’s recent engagements include performances in London, Cornwall, Ireland, Wales, Belgium, Italy and France (Notre Dame de Paris, Disneyland Paris, La Madeleine), including recitals at Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St-Martin-in-the-Fields, and LSO St Luke’s. She has accompanied the BBC Symphony Chorus in preparation for performance at the Barbican, and the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. In the summer of 2021, she was the pianist for Waterperry Opera’s staged song cycles, Lili Boulanger’s Clairières dans le ciel, and Vaughan William’s On Wenlock Edge. In 2018 she performed Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles as a part of the BBC Total Immersion Day, later broadcast on BBC Radio 3. She was the concerto soloist for Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue and Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto for the Chorus of Dissent. In 2019/2020, she was the repetiteur/orchestral pianist for Northern Ireland Opera/Lyric Theatre Belfast’s Sweeney Todd, and Kiss Me Kate. She has been a staff pianist at Arts Educational Schools, Guildford School of Acting, Millennium Performing Arts, the Victorian College of the Arts and Opera Scholars Australia.

Krystal is also passionate about music education and outreach, and she is the Principal Accompanist and Piano Teacher at Surbiton High School, where she also works across both the Boys’ and Girls’ Prep Schools. She was a Wigmore Hall Chamber Tots Artist 2017-18, and has worked on education workshops for the Glyndebourne Education Department, the Royal Academy of Music, Samling Academy, the London Bach Choir, the Prison Choir Project, and Kingston Music Service. She is the accompanist for the award-winning Bromley Boy Singers, has been a staff pianist for the Rodolfus Choral Courses, National Youth Choir, and BAY Choral Courses, and in Australia has worked with the Gondwana Voices.

Updated: 13/09/2024