Gillian Cracknell studied the piano with Marjorie Clementi as a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal Northern College of Music in her hometown of Manchester.  While still a student she gave recitals with the leader of the Hallé Orchestra, Martin Milner, who had been her violin teacher from the age of ten.

Gill continued her musical education at the Royal Academy of Music in London where she also studied singing, and since graduation she has worked as a chamber pianist, piano accompanist and recitalist, her concert engagements taking her to many European countries and the United States.

For the Independent Television series entitled “Will Shakespeare” she played in scenes with Tim Curry and Patience Collier, and she has performed in theatre as Clara Wieck in the duo “Schumannic” devised and played by the actor Michael Wilcox.  Gill collaborates with singers on the interpretation of French Classical Song and German Lieder, and she is deeply committed to working with young musicians preparing for scholarships, competitions and recitals.

She has taught at Harrow School, The King’s School Canterbury, King’s College Choir School Cambridge, St Paul’s Girls’ School, South Hampstead High School, The Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Gill has adjudicated piano prizes for the Worshipful Company of Musicians at the Wigmore Hall and the Barbican, for the North London Festival and post-graduate piano prizes at the Royal Academy of Music.  She was a Governor of the Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain until 2019, she is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians and she plays an active role in the work of the Friends of the Musicians’ Chapel.

Gill has been happily engaged as piano accompanist in residence for the Royal Free Music Society since 2000.  In any remaining spare moments she enjoys good red wine, the Restoration Comedies and summer cycling in the Outer Hebrides.

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