Hamish Brown

Hamish Brown is a British pianist, arranger, and composer based in London. His work as an acclaimed and award-winning collaborative artist has spanned the genres of art song, chamber music, concertos and orchestral keyboard for over a decade.

Over the course of his varied, versatile and imaginative career, Hamish has performed at venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Oxford International Song Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Cadogan Hall, Klosters Music Festival, Royal Festival Hall, Schubertíada Vilabertran, Kings Place, Saffron Hall, Buxton International Festival, Heidelberger Frühling, Aldeburgh Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Hay Festival, Three Palaces Festival, International Lied Festival Zeist, V&A Museum, Leeds Lieder Festival, Deal Festival, St John’s Smith Square, Lichfield Festival, Legislative Assembly of Madeira, The Danish Song Society, Syde Manor, St George’s Bristol, Lewes Festival of Song, Corvedale Festival and South Hill Park. He also enjoys an especially warm relationship with the Klosters Weihnachtskonzerte (Christmas Concerts) in Switzerland, at which he has performed annually since 2021.

His performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Four and DR P2 (Denmark). His debut album, a recital disc with internationally celebrated mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor, will be released in spring 2026 (Linn Records). The duo will tour this programme across many venues, concluding at Wigmore Hall. He is featured in the world première recording of the Concerto for Wind Quintet and Two Pianos (Eight Hands) by Malcolm Williamson (Divine Art, 2025).

A highly regarded recital partner of many of the UK’s finest singers, he has won prizes for his collaborative performances at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, Royal Over Seas League Annual Music Competition, Wigmore Hall Song Competition, Copenhagen Lied-Duo Competition, Mozart Singing Competition and Somerset Song Prize.

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

In recent years, Hamish has featured as soloist in the Piano Concerto in A minor (Schumann), the Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major (Mozart), and the Concerto for 2 Pianos, 3 Hands (Arnold). Since 2022, he has also been an official accompanist for the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition.

Hamish is in high demand as a skilled and experienced accompanist for conducting courses and masterclasses. In this capacity, he has longstanding affiliations with the Royal College of Music (Toby Purser, Peter Stark, Howard Williams), the London Conducting Workshop (John Farrer), the International Conducting Academy (Jonathan Mann), and cherished individual links with renowned pedagogues Colin Metters and Martyn Brabbins.

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 for accompaniment in all four major RCM vocal competitions. His studies were generously supported by Knights of the Round Table, a Help Musicians UK Harrison Award, and a Musicians’ Company Lambert Studentship, and he graduated in 2016 with Distinction.

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, where his tenure was further generously supported by the Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust, the Gilbert & Eileen Edgar Foundation and a legacy from Anthony Saltmarsh. He continues to work at the RCM as a staff accompanist across all faculties.

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

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.