Simon Lepper — Piano

Simon Lepper studied music at King’s College, Cambridge, before pursuing piano accompaniment with Michael Dussek at the Royal Academy of Music and later with Ruben Lifschitz at the Fondation Royaumont. He currently serves as Assistant Head of Keyboard (Collaborative Piano) at the Royal College of Music, London, where he is also a vocal repertoire coach. Since 2003, he has been an official accompanist for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. He has given masterclasses at the Mozarteum, Fondation Royaumont, Samling Institute for Young Artists, LIFE Victoria Festival in Barcelona, and La Chappelle in Belgium.

Performance highlights include a three-concert project on the songs of Joseph Marx at London’s Wigmore Hall; recital tours with Stéphane Degout at the Ravinia and Edinburgh Festivals and at the opera houses of Bordeaux, Dijon, La Monnaie, Lausanne, and Lyon; recitals at Carnegie Hall with Karen Cargill and Sally Matthews; and at the Frick Collection with Christopher Purves. He has performed Schubert’s song cycles with Gerald Finley and Mark Padmore, including at the Schubertiade, Hohenems, and collaborated with Christiane Karg at Frankfurt Opera, the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, and the Rheingau Festival.

He has presented an all-Schubert program with Ilker Arcayürek in Barcelona, Zürich, New York’s Park Avenue Armory, San Francisco, and Wigmore Hall, where he has also appeared with Dame Felicity Palmer, Karen Cargill, Sally Matthews, Stéphane Degout, and Mark Padmore. With Benjamin Appl, he toured India and inaugurated the highest concert hall in the world in Shenzhen with Aida Garifullina. Upcoming performances include Wigmore Hall recitals with Gweneth-Ann Rand and Benjamin Appl, as well as collaborations with Mathilda Lloyd (ECHO Rising Star) and singers including Robyn Allegra-Parton, Fleur Barron, Jess Dandy, Sylvia Schwartz, Rachael Wilson, Ronan Collett, Pablo Garcia-Lopez, Laurence Kilsby, and James Newby.

Mr. Lepper’s discography includes recital recordings with Dame Felicity Palmer; two volumes of Debussy Songs and a Strauss album with Gillian Keith; French and Mahler songs with Karen Cargill; the complete songs of Jonathan Dove with Kitty Whately; and contemporary violin works with Carolin Widmann, awarded a Diapason d’Or. Additional releases include Samuel Coleridge-Taylor songs with Elizabeth Llewellyn; Schubert songs with Ilker Arcayürek; ballads with Stéphane Degout; and Poèmes d’un jour, a Gramophone Editor’s Choice. His collaborations with Robyn Allegra-Parton (Woman in Gold) and Christopher Purves (My soul, what fear you?) further highlight his versatility. Upcoming projects include a disc of English song with bass-baritone Tristan Hambleton.