Acclaimed by The Daily Telegraph as a pianist of 'amazing power and panache', Clare Hammond has performed across Europe, Russia and Canada and has appeared over the past year at the Wigmore and Barbican Halls in London. Her recent Purcell Room debut for the Park Lane Group concert series was praised by The Guardian for its 'crisp precision and unflashy intelligence'. A passionate advocate of twentieth and twenty-first century music, Clare is equally at home among virtuosic masterpieces of the Romantic tradition. Since her debut with orchestra at the age of eleven, she has acquired a concerto repertoire of over 15 works which she has performed at major venues across the UK and on the continent. Solo engagements have included recitals in concert series and festivals across Britain, in Paris, Florence, Aalborg and Moscow.
Forthcoming highlights include a concert at the Bridgewater Hall, Panufnik, Szymanowski and Prokofiev at the Wigmore Hall for the Park Lane Group and a debut CD of contemporary British piano music to be released by Prima Facie records in 2011. Keen to experiment across the arts, Clare will collaborate with the Cambridge Contemporary Dance Company in a choreographed recital based on the Faust legend to celebrate the Liszt bicentenary in 2011.
Clare is a committed chamber musician and has collaborated with Andrew Kennedy, Jennifer Pike, Philippe Graffin, Lawrence Power and the Endellion, Dante and Benaïm String Quartets. She has recently performed London premières of works by Sally Beamish and Edward Harper at the Southbank Centre with cellist Richard Birchall and the two are planning a Beethoven sonata cycle in 2011. Richard and Clare are joined by violinist Jenna Sherry in the newly formed Inari Trio.
Eager to extend the boundaries of traditional concert life, Clare is intrigued by new perspectives that musicological study can bring to bear on performance. She is currently researching a doctoral thesis on twentieth-century left-handed piano concertos, has published a paper on Mozart for British Postgraduate Musicology and regularly presents papers at conferences. A committed communicator, she enjoys introducing recitals, pre and post concert talks and giving lecture recitals to audiences of all levels.
Clare completed a BA at Cambridge University, where she obtained a double first in music, and is currently pursuing postgraduate study with Ronan O'Hora at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and with Professor Rhian Samuel at City University. She is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Stradivari Trust, Martin Musical Scholarship Fund, Jessie Wakefield Bursary and the Kenneth Loveland Gift.