John Cameron & Simon Smith
Saturday 6th August 1pm Free Entry
John Cameron
As an accompanist, John has performed all over the UK and abroad. He has given concerts at the Wigmore Hall, St John's Smith Square, the Barbican Hall and at the Edinburgh and Cheltenham International Music festivals. Among others, he has worked with singers Sarah Walker, Gweneth-Ann Jeffers, Stefan Loges and Sophie Karthauser and a recording of songs by Ronald Stevenson, with the soprano Susan Hamilton was released on Delphian Records. He has performed on BBC Radio 3, BBC 4 and, as a repetiteur has worked with Gennadi Rozhdestvensky Sir Charles Mackerras, Scottish Opera, Grange Park Opera, Phillipe Hereweghe, Donald Runnicles and Sir Roger Norrington. Since joining the staff at St Mary's Music School he has been active as a recitalist, accompanying string players, singers and wind players in concert and masterclasses as well as teaching piano and chamber music. Whilst in Edinburgh, he has worked with Mr McFall's Chamber, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Cadenza, The Bach Ensemble of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Festival Chorus.
Simon Smith was born in Northumberland, England in 1983. At St Mary's Music School in Edinburgh he studied piano with Richard Beauchamp and composition with Tom David Wilson. In Cambridge he studied composition with Jeremy Thurlow and Giles Swayne.
As a pianist he has performed many of the landmarks of the 20th-century repertoire, most notably the piano concerto and complete Etudes of György Ligeti, following a performance of which he was described as “a phenomenon – nothing daunts him, technically or musically” (The Scotsman). For Delphian Records he has recorded solo music by James MacMillan, Stuart MacRae, Hafliði Hallgrímsson and Thomas Wilson. A two-disc set of the complete piano music of Alfred Schnittke, released in 2013, was acclaimed as “compelling and utterly persuasive” (BBC Music Magazine) and praised for its “extraordinary sensitivity, detail and emotional commitment” (The Independent). A disc of piano music by Valentin Silvestrov was released in 2015.
A specialist in music notation, Simon also works professionally as an editor and music engraver, having produced scores for Boosey & Hawkes of numerous large-scale works by Harrison Birtwistle, James MacMillan and others. In recent years he has concentrated increasingly on the music of Stockhausen.