Quick Facts
Biography
Clare Hammond (born 1985) is a British concert pianist. In 2016, she was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society's Young Artist award.
Early life and education
Hammond grew up in Nottingham, was educated at Nottingham Girls' High School and studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where she achieved a double first in music. She then undertook postgraduate study with Ronan O'Hora at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has also completed a DMA at London's City University, writing her thesis on 20th-century left-hand piano concertos commissioned by pianist Paul Wittgenstein.
Performance career
Hammond has performed in concert halls and at festivals across Europe, and is regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and other European radio networks. She has collaborated with artists including the Brodsky, Endellion, and Badke quartets, and Henning Kraggerud, Andrew Kennedy, Jennifer Pike, and Lawrence Power.
In 2016, she was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society's Young Artist award.
An advocate of contemporary music, she has given world premieres of major works by composers such as Robert Saxton, Kenneth Hesketh, Edwin Roxburgh, John McCabe and Arlene Sierra.
Hammond has a strong interest in Polish music and culture and co-curated a centenary festival for Andrzej Panufnik at King's Place in London. She has toured Poland on multiple occasions, and performed at the Chopin and his Europe Festival in Warsaw in 2014.
Film work
In 2015 Hammond appeared as the young Miss Shepherd in the film adaptation of The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett and recorded the film's soundtrack with George Fenton, the Philharmonia, and the BBC Concert Orchestra.
She was involved as a piano teacher in the 2011 film Hysteria and was Felicity Jones's hand double.
Discography
Hammond has released a number of recordings:
- Josef Mysliveček: Complete Music for Keyboard - with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan (BIS Records, 2019)
- Robert Saxton: Piano Music (Toccata Classics, 2018)
- Art of Dancing – music for piano and trumpet, with Simon Desbruslais (Signum Records, 2017)
- Horae (pro clara) – solo piano music by Ken Hesketh (BIS Records, 2016)
- The Lady In The Van soundtrack (Sony, 2015)
- Etude – 20th and 21st-century etudes by Unsuk Chin, Karol Szymanowski, Sergei Lyapunov and Nikolai Kapustin (BIS Records, 2015)
- Reflections – piano works by Andrzej and Roxanna Panufnik (BIS Records, 2014)
- Piano Polyptych – piano works by contemporary British composers (Prima Facie Records, 2012)