Hamish Brown

Hamish Brown is a British pianist, arranger, and composer, based in London, UK. An award-winning and versatile artist, Hamish has performed as a vocal accompanist, chamber musician, orchestral pianist and soloist at numerous prestigious venues across the UK and abroad.

Hamish is a regular and acclaimed recital partner of many of the UK’s finest singers, and has won prizes for his performances at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, ROSL Annual Music Competition, Wigmore Hall Song Competition, Copenhagen Lied-Duo Competition, Mozart Singing Competition and Somerset Song Prize.

His work as a song accompanist has taken him to Oxford International Song Festival, Kings Place, International Lied Festival Zeist, St John’s Smith Square, Elgar Room (Royal Albert Hall), Aldeburgh Festival, Lewes Festival of Song, Three Palaces Festival (Valletta), Beethovenfest Bonn, Heidelberger Frühling, Arthena Foundation (Düsseldorf), The Danish Song Society (Copenhagen), St George’s Bristol, V&A Museum, Leeds Lieder Festival and Deal Festival, and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Danish Radio (P2). In recent years, he has performed at Wigmore Hall with soprano Milly Forrest, and at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize with rising star mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor.

Hamish is active as a chamber musician, performing diverse repertoire with outstanding instrumentalists at venues including Cadogan Hall, Saffron Hall, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Klosters Music Festival, Legislative Assembly of Madeira and South Hill Park, and broadcasts include BBC Radio 4 and BBC Four. He has twice been an official accompanist for the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition (2022 & 2024).

As an orchestral pianist, Hamish has performed with orchestras including the RCM Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Sinfonia and Southbank Sinfonia, under conductors including Vladimir Jurowski, John Wilson, Jac van Steen, Brett Dean, Martin André, Michael Seal and Simon Over.

As a concerto soloist, Hamish has recently performed the Concerto for 2 Pianos, 3 Hands (Arnold) and Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major (Mozart), and recently the Concerto for Wind Quintet and Two Pianos (Eight Hands) (Williamson), with forthcoming plans for the Piano Concerto in A minor (Schumann) in 2024.

Throughout his career, Hamish has held a passion for work with innovative, challenging, multi-genre projects. Such experiences include Adding Machine (Joshua Schmidt) at the Finborough Theatre, Sideshows (Leo Geyer and Constella Music) at Sadler’s Wells, The Sound Voice Project (Hannah Conway) at Kings Place, and A Child In Striped Pyjamas (Noah Max) at the Cockpit Theatre.

Originally from Wiltshire, Hamish read music at the University of Manchester, studying piano with Andrew Wilde, and graduating with First Class Honours. He continued with postgraduate studies in Piano Accompaniment, studying with Simon Lepper and Roger Vignoles at the Royal College of Music, where he was awarded first prizes in accompaniment for all four major RCM vocal competitions. He graduated in 2016 with Distinction. His studies have been generously supported by Knights of the Round Table, a Help Musicians UK Harrison Award, and a Musicians’ Company Lambert Studentship.

He has taken part in masterclasses given by pianists such as Anna Markland, Ronan O’Hora, Philip Fowke, Peter Lawson, Michael Dussek, Joseph Middleton, Graham Johnson and Julius Drake, and singers such as Dame Sarah Connolly, Edith Wiens, Elly Ameling, Susan McCulloch, Roderick Williams, Dennis O’Neill, Sir Simon Keenlyside and Sir Thomas Allen.

Following his studies, Hamish was a Britten Pears Young Artist (supported by a Viola Tunnard Scholarship) and an Oxford Lieder Young Artist. From 2018–22, he returned to the RCM as a Collaborative Piano Fellow. His fellowships were also generously supported by the Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust, and subsequently the Gilbert & Eileen Edgar Foundation and a legacy from Anthony Saltmarsh.

Hamish is a composer of solo, chamber and choral works. His original music has been performed by ensembles including Vaganza, Quatuor Danel and Asyla Ensemble. His most recent work, A Musical Instrument (poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning) for SATB choir and saxophone quartet, was performed by the Queen’s Park Singers in 2022 and 2023.

Hamish has played jazz piano with the Big Bands at Manchester University and RCM (guest directed by renowned trumpeter Mike Lovatt), and has worked in musical theatre, including Sunday in the Park with George (Stephen Sondheim) and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (Frank Loesser).

He also performed on the Ivor Novello Award-nominated track 'Cargo' from the 2015 album Bleeds by Roots Manuva, produced by Fred Again.