Acclaimed as a “pianist of extraordinary gifts” (Gramophone) and “immense power” (The Times), Clare Hammond is recognised for the virtuosity and authority of her performances. She won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award in 2016 and an Edison Klassiek Award in 2024.

This year sees her debuts at the BBC Proms, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Salle Bourgie in Montréal, alongside return visits to the Wigmore Hall, London’s National Gallery, and Raritäten der Klaviermusik in Husum. She records a disc of concertos by Britten, Tippett and Walton with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and George Vass, performs Rachmaninov with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Tom Fetherstonhaugh, and Hesketh with the Ulster Orchestra and Anna Rakitina. Clare will give the World Premieres of the newly discovered Fantasia by Andrzej Panufnik with the Filharmonia Poznańska and Łukasz Borowicz, and a new concerto by Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Recent highlights have included Rachmaninov’s Paganini Variations with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Lionel Bringuier, Grace Williams’ Sinfonia Concertante with BBC NOW and Jac van Steen, works by Piers Hellawell and Samy Moussa with the Ulster Orchestra and Jamie Phillips, and recitals at the Aldeburgh Festival, Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice (broadcast on RAI 3), and Festival Baroque de Pontoise. Clare gave sold-out performances of Ghosts and Whispers for piano and film with composer John Woolrich and animators the Quay Brothers at Fundación Juan March in Madrid and the Barbican, and continued her collaboration with actor and writer Tama Matheson.

Contemporary music is at the core of Clare’s work. She has given over 50 world premieres, including those of major works by Arlene Sierra, Robert Saxton and Michael Berkeley, and her discography includes world premiere recordings of over twenty works. In 2019, she gave the world premiere of Kenneth Hesketh’s Uncoiling the River with Martyn Brabbins and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and a further performance with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko. In 2022, she premiered Graham Fitkin’s new piano quartet with Fitkin, Ruth Wall and Kathryn Stott at the Aldeburgh Festival, and opened the Southbank Centre’s 22/23 season at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the work.

Clare has recorded six discs for BIS, most recently releasing an album of Etudes by visionary French composer Hélène de Montgeroult, launched in a special concert at London’s National Gallery and featured extensively on BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the Week and Essential Classics. The disc was selected as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone. Reviewers noted the historical importance of the etudes and the ideal match with Hammond’s virtuosic and lyrical abilities. She previously recorded a disc of 20th- and 21st-century variations which received extensive critical approval, and a disc of etudes by Unsuk Chin, Nikolai Kapustin, Sergei Lyapunov and Karol Szymanowski which won her an Opus d’Or from Opus HD magazine and 5 diapasons from Diapason.

Community engagement forms an increasingly important part of Clare’s work. Since 2017, she has performed to over 15,800 schoolchildren in partnership with Gloucestershire Music and Wye Valley Music in Schools. In 2024, Clare founded the Gloucestershire Piano Trust to support her ongoing work in schools and prisons.

Clare completed a BA at Cambridge University, where she obtained a double first in music, and undertook postgraduate study with Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and with Professor Rhian Samuel at City University London. She completed a doctorate on 20th-century left-hand piano concertos in 2012. In 2014 Clare was paired with French pianist Anne Queffélec on the Philip Langridge Mentoring Scheme run by the RPS.

Clare is grateful for the support of the Vaughan Williams Foundation, Hinrichsen Foundation, John S Cohen Foundation, Arts Council England, Scops Arts Trust, Golsoncott Foundation, Gemma Classical Music Trust, Fidelio Charitable Trust, Help Musicians UK, Stradivari Trust, Ambache Charitable Trust, British Korean Society, Chandos Memorial Trust, Vernon Ellis Foundation, Polish Cultural Institute, British Council, and the Britten-Pears Foundation.

[Please do not alter the text of this biography. If you require one of a different length, write to Francesca Nunn at Rayfield Allied to request one.]