| Biography | Tom poster, won First Prize at the Scottish International Piano Competition 2007, the Ensemble Prize at the Honens International Piano Competition 2009, and the keyboard sections of the Royal Over-Seas League and BBC Young Musician of the Year Competitions in 2000.
Since his London concerto debut at the age of 13, Tom has appeared in a wide-ranging concerto repertoire of over 30 major works ranging from Bach to Ligeti, with orchestras and conductors including the Aurora Orchestra/Nicholas Collon, BBC Philharmonic/Yan Pascal Tortelier, BBC Scottish Symphony/James Loughran, European Union Chamber Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia/Vladimir Ashkenazy, China National Symphony/En Shao in Beijing, Atlantic Classical Orchestra/Stewart Robertson in Florida, and the State Capella Philharmonic in St Petersburg.
Tom features regularly on BBC Radio 3 as soloist and chamber musician, and appeared in both capacities at the BBC Proms in 2008, 2009 and 2011. He has given solo recitals at the Barbican Hall, the Brighton, City of London, Edinburgh, Presteigne and Spoleto Festivals, and in Canada, the Channel Islands, France, Germany and Switzerland. Tom enjoys duo partnerships with Alison Balsom, Guy Johnston and Jennifer Pike, has recently collaborated with Ian Bostridge at the Aldeburgh Festival and Steven Isserlis at the Wigmore Hall, and has performed piano quintets with the Brodsky, Elias, Endellion, Medici, Sacconi and Skampa Quartets. As pianist of the Aronowitz Ensemble (BBC New Generation Artists 2006-2008), he has appeared at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Aldeburgh, Bath and Cheltenham Festivals, and on several occasions at the Wigmore Hall. The Ensembles debut CD, Climbing the Skies, was released in 2010 to great critical acclaim; a second CD is due for release in April 2012. Later this season, Tom will record two discs for Chandos, including Chaussons Concerto with Jennifer Pike and the Doric Quartet.
Alongside his busy pianistic career, Tom has presented programmes on Beethoven and Schumann for BBC Radio Scotland, given lecture-recitals at the Two Moors Festival, acted as Artistic Director of Chacombe Music Festival, and appeared as Reciter in Waltons Façade at Musicfest Aberystwyth. Toms arrangements of Gershwin and Cole Porter songs have been recorded and performed extensively, as have his compositions, including two chamber operas written when he was twelve. Recent commissions include a one-act musical for puppets, The Oldest Man in the World, for his brother Tobis theatre company, Wattle and Daub; and a piece about unusual sea-creatures, Turn to the Watery World!, for Alison Balsom, which toured the UK and Germany in 2010 and receives its London premiere in 2012.
Born in 1981, Tom studied with Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he held a Postgraduate Fellowship, and at Kings College, Cambridge, where he gained a Double First in Music. |