Annabel Thwaite

Pianist

Annabel Thwaite studied Solo Piano with Joan Havill and Accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse, Paris. She has been the recipient of numerous scholarships including an English Speaking Union scholarship to study at the Ravel Académie, St Jean-de-Luz from where she assisted Robin Bowman at the Nice Académie and as an accompanist, a scholarship to attend the Lied et Mélodie course at the Fondation de Royaumont, France with Reuben Lifschitz and in 2007 at the Franz Schubert Institute.

Recognised as one of the most versatile and charismatic accompanists, she has won all the major accompanying prizes, including the 2004 piano prize at the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Competition; and in 2005 and 2007 she won the Gold Medal Prize at the Barbican Hall and the Piano Prize at the Richard Tauber Competition at the Wigmore Hall. This year alone she has collaborated with renowned artists such as Roberto Alagna and Amanda Roocroft and received private tuition with Wolfgang Holzmair and Brigitte Fassbaender.

As a Soloist and Chamber musician, Annabel has performed in many countries, including Canada, France, Italy, Sweden and South Africa and in England, concertos at the Birmingham Symphony Hall and at Imperial College, London. In the UK she has performed at the Barbican Hall, Cadogan Hall, Wigmore Hall with the cellist Mats Lindström, the Purcell Room, St. John’s Smith Square, Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh, Oxford Lieder and Leeds Lieder Festivals. She was also the Lied pianist at the prestigious Mozarteum  Academy in Salzburg, Dartington and Charterhouse International Summer Festivals.

Annabel is the official accompanist to the London Welsh Male Voice Choir with whom she has performed at the Festival of Male Choirs at the Royal Albert Hall in 2008 and in the great Cathedrals of England, including Canterbury, Salisbury and Wells and also on tours to Slovenia, France, New York and Boston. In 2007 and 2009 she was the accompanist at the Young Welsh Singer of the Year Competition and at the Hampshire Singer of the Year.

She has recorded for Universal Records with Nicky Spence, the Scottish Tenor, whose album was nominated for a classical Brit award and is regularly played on Classic FM and she is also a regular film session pianist, having recently recorded the soundtrack to the movie “Awake” and the BBC Jane Austin series “Emma” at Abbey Road.

Her extensive teaching and accompanying experience includes giving workshops, and coaching at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Pro Corda, Canadian Vocal Arts Institute, Junior Trinity College of Music and Francis Holland School.  She is also part of the “Lost chord” schemes with which she regularly tours the UK and has recently become an Associated Board Examiner. 

Future engagements include a busy schedule of solo, instrumental and song recitals and accompanying at the London Welsh Festival of Male Choirs at the Royal Albert Hall in October 2010.