Anthiny Hewitt

Award-winning British pianist Anthony Hewitt enjoys a diverse career as recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, accompanist, festival director, teacher, educator, and lecturer. 

A highly versatile and engaging artist, his communicative performances have won him critical acclaim worldwide throughout a career which includes engagements with the National Symphony Orchestra and Princeton Symphony Orchestra in the USA, the English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Camerata and Northern Sinfonia in the UK, and the RTE Orchestra in Ireland. 

In the UK he has performed with orchestra at London’s Royal Festival Hall and Symphony Hall in Birmingham, given eight recitals at Wigmore Hall, and has appeared as chamber musician at King's Place and Cadogan Hall in London, Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, and Usher Hall in Edinburgh. Prestigious festivals include Swaledale, Newbury and Prussia Cove in the UK, Kronberg and Mecklenburg in Germany, Stift in Holland, and Bastad in Sweden. 

 

Anthony trained privately in the Lake District with Patricia Shackleton, at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Seta Tanyel, and was accepted at the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Leon Fleisher and Claude Franck at the age of 17. 

Anthony's discography includes 'Protégé' (Divine Art Records) - the first coupling on CD of the Liszt and Reubke Sonatas - which was praised in International Record Review as "magisterial", and received a Gramophone recommendation. His debut CD was described by BBC Music Magazine as 'displaying a fine communicative and poetic musicianship'. He has recorded for Naxos with violist Sarah-Jane Bradley, and The Gramophone described the duo's recent performance on a disc of music by British composer Peter Fribbins as 'superb'. Other discs include a live recording from the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. with violinist Tamaki Kawakubo on Japanese label Avex, as well as the pending release with Dimension Trio on the Champs Hill label. 

An avid chamber musician, he is a member of Dimension Trio - winner of the prestigious Parkhouse award - who have received invitations to festivals and to perform with orchestras in the UK and abroad, including the Brighton Philharmonic and Lodz Philharmonic respectively. He performs regularly with distinguished artists such as clarinettist Emma Johnson, cellist Thomas Carroll, and has a two-piano duo with Martin Roscoe, with whom he recently shared a cycle of complete Beethoven Pianos Sonatas. 

Further afield he has toured South America as a soloist and with ‘cellist Johannes Moser, and is a regular visitor to Japan performing with violinist Narimichi Kawabata. In May 2013 he gave the Armenian premiere of the Britten Piano Concerto, and in 2012 his most unique feat was in the guise of the ‘Olympianist’ which saw him cycling the entire length of the UK, 1200 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats followed by a concert at the end of each day. He performed over thirty engagements and raised £13,000 for charity. Anthony's special-edition CD 'Piano Odyssey' was broadcast several times on Classic FM, and he also appeared twice on BBC Radio 3's 'In-Tune'. 

In 2003 Anthony founded the Ulverston International Music Festival in his hometown in Cumbria with the aim of bringing internationally renowned artists – including Steve Isserlis, Tasmin Little, Natalie Clein, Chloe Hanslip, and Alina Ibragimova to name a few – to a rural part of England. As Artistic Director, part of Anthony’s role includes work in the community with local school children in workshops, family concerts, and master classes. 

Anthony joined the faculty at the Birmingham Conservatoire in September 2013 and is frequently invited to judge on competition juries. He is based in South West London and his hobbies include cycling into the countryside, and skiing and hiking in the Alps. 

www.anthonyhewitt.co.uk