Leon McCawley, piano

Leon McCawley, one of Britain's foremost pianists, has forged a highly successful career since winning 1st Prize in the 1993 International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna and 2nd Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition. Championing core repertoire together with the more unfamiliar, McCawley’s CD releases have been impressing critics far and wide. His 2014 CD of Schumann’s Piano Music for Somm Recordings is no exception: ’Clarity is the byword here: clarity in every conceivable sense, in terms of texture and sonority, pedalling, tempos and of musical thought. Leon McCawley proves a wholly faithful guide to these wonderful works’ (International Record Review April 2014).

McCawley studied at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester with Heather Slade-Lipkin before continuing his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia with Eleanor Sokoloff. He also worked closely with Nina Milkina in London.

A keen chamber musician, he has enjoyed fruitful collaborations with a range of ensembles and musicians at many prestigious concert venues including BBC Proms Chamber Series, BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Series at the Wigmore Hall and Aldeburgh, Brighton, Cheltenham and Edinburgh festivals.

Leon McCawley is currently professor of piano at London's Royal College of Music. He is married to the painter Anna Hyunsook Paik.