Piano

Our 2021 online Festival was a great success with many outstanding performances. We built on this success in 2022 with our return to live piano competitions. These were in the Free Church Hampstead Garden Suburb between Friday 23 April to Friday 13 May, with the Festival concert on Saturday 14 May.

In 2022 we moved to a new system for entries. The first time that you use it, you will need to register.

The closing date for piano classes has now passed.

Elite Piano Competitions

The 2022 piano competitions will be live. The Appelbe Piano Prize Competition will be running, but the Emanuel Trophy Piano Competition will not as too few other Festivals have taken place during 2021. Any winner who would otherwise have qualified for the Emanuel Trophy Competition in 2022, will be eligible for entry in 2023. To find out about these competitions, please see the separate web pages devoted to them by clicking on the competition names.

Other Piano Competitions

These will be held on the following dates – Tuesday 26, and Friday 29 April, Monday 2, Tuesday 3, Friday 6, Tuesday 10, Thursday 12, and Friday 13 May in Venue: Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church, Central Square, NW11 7AG

On Tuesday 26, and Friday 29 April, Tuesday 10, Thursday 12, and Friday 13 May – Adjudicator – Timothy Barratt

On Monday 2 and Friday 6 May – Adjudicator – Allan Clay

Tuesday 3 May – Adjudicator – Gillian Cracknell

Every competitor will receive a written adjudication sheet and a certificate of participation.

Please click here to download the 2022 Piano Syllabus – 2022 Piano Syllabus – updated 24th January 2022

The closing date has now passed.

Where entry depends on age, it is the age on 1st September 2021 so that all the entrants in a class are in the same school year.

If an entrant has been a pupil of the Adjudicator in the year prior to the Festival or is well-known to the Adjudicator, they should contact the Section Head before entering.

The European Piano Teachers Association Cup will be awarded to the most talented pianist under 16 years of age.

Entrants must provide the Adjudicator with a clean copy of the music for each work to be performed and pieces may not be repeated in different competitions.

The Grand Piano chosen and hired by the Festival for the 2022 competitions is supplied and maintained by Steinway & Sons, London.

2021 Piano Competition Winners and 2019 Emanuel Trophy and Applebe Piano Prize Competition winners

To see videos of these performances, click the ‘read more’ link below.

Section Administrator

Janice Twiselton

64 Powys Lane
London
N13 4HS

Tel: 020 8886 7237

Email: piano@northlondonfestival.org.uk

Adjudicators

Allan Clay

Allan Clay is a pianist, organist, conductor and composer, with long experience in education and as an adjudicator. He was educated in Essex and went on to the Royal Academy of Music, London, studying piano with Alexander Kelly, organ with Christopher Bowers-Broadbent and composition with Roger Steptoe. After graduating, he worked as a freelance musician and was the founding conductor of the Surrey Sinfonietta (now the London Camerata) who gave the first performance of his Oboe Concerto with Hilary Dennis. In the mid-90s, Allan joined the staff of Felsted School, and subsequently has been Director of Music in schools in the South of England, as well as at Harrow School, Bangkok, where also he worked with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, Zambia and Vietnam. He examines extensively for ABRSM, both in the UK and internationally, and is delighted to be adjudicating at this year’s Festival.

Timothy Barratt

Timothy Barratt studied on a Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, winning many major awards, and completed his studies with Vlado Perlemuter in Paris and Geoffrey Parsons. He has toured and broadcast extensively in the UK and abroad as soloist, accompanist and chamber music player. Whilst still a student he developed a special interest in song accompaniment through playing for Masterclasses at Aldeburgh, subsequently partnering such artists as Dame Felicity Lott and Robert White. In addition, instrumentalists he has worked with include Jack Brymer, Bradley Creswick and Haaken Hardenberger. Teaching forms a major part of his musical life and he works with pupils of all ages and levels from beginner to post-graduate. He was Head of Keyboard at Dulwich College for almost 25 years whilst also teaching at the RAM and TCM and now pursues a busy freelance career.

An ABRSM examiner since 1991, he is also a Trainer, Moderator and Mentor. Other work for the AB includes selecting the graded Piano pieces and presenting Seminars. He frequently directs Masterclasses for performers and teachers’ workshops and is in demand as a Competition and Festival adjudicator.

Gill Cracknell

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.

Syllabus

View the complete Section syllabus for 2022

Download

Piano

The closing date for piano classes has now passed.

Elite Piano Competitions

Other Piano Competitions

The Grand Piano chosen and hired by the Festival for the 2022 competitions is supplied and maintained by Steinway & Sons, London.

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