EDWARD RUSHTON - PIANIST

Edward Rushton studied piano (with Renna Kellaway) and composition at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, before going on to read Music at King's College, Cambridge. After graduation in 1994 he took the MMus degree in composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, while being increasingly active as an accompanist, working with student singers and instrumentalists. In his second year in Glasgow, Edward held the post of Broadwood Junior Fellow in Accompaniment. In 2001 he graduated with distinction from Irwin Gage's masterclass in Lied interpretation at the Zurich University of Applied Arts. He has been teaching piano accompaniment at the Musikhochschule Luzern since 2000.

He has played numerous song recitals in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Italy and Greece with such singers as Juliane Banse, Sybille Diethelm, Melanie Forgeron, Annina Haug, Jeannine Hirzel, Kathrin Hottiger, Lena Kiepenheuer, Theresa Kronthaler, Yvonne Naef, Robin Adams, Richard Burkhard, Michael Mogl, René Perler, Jakob Pilgram, Lázsló Polgár, Jonathan Sells and Simon Wallfisch. He plays regularly with a variety of chamber music partners including Harry White, saxophone, Raphael Wallfisch, cello and Alison Cullen, piano.

His love for Lieder and song led him in 2015 to found, together with a group of like-minded singers and pianists, the company "Besuch der Lieder" ("The Company of Song") in order to further the performance of Lieder in private spaces in Switzerland.

His discography includes CDs for Nimbus, BIS, Resonus, Prospero, CPO, Delphian, Guild, Musiques Suisses and Musicaphon with singers Robin Adams, Sybille Diethelm, Valentin Johannes Gloor, Annina Haug, Jeannine Hirzel,, René Perler, Kate Symonds-Joy, and Simon Wallfisch, as well as with cellist Raphael Wallfisch, saxophonist Harry White and pianists Fabienne Romer and William Vann. → Discography

Edward is also in demand as a composer, with recent works performed and commissioned by the Schubert Ensemble, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Leeds Lieder, Orchestra of the National Theatre Mannheim, London Symphony Orchestra, Counterpoise, The Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, Harry White Trio, Gemischter Chor Zürich, Origen Festival, University of Zurich, Zürcher Singakademie. His operas have been performed throughout Switzerland, Germany, the UK, and in Philadelphia. Composing for voice and piano also forms a core part of his oeuvre, and he has already written over thirty song cycles and individual works in this, one of his favourite genres. He was awarded the Werkjahr stipend of the City of Zurich in 2013.

For his achievements he has been awarded the Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Foundation prize in 2020.


Portrait photo © Benjamin Hofer