Hanover Square Lunchtime Concert: Kyle Nash-Baker

Today's Hanover Square Lunchtime Concert is given by pianist Kyle Nash-Baker, who will perform Enrique Granados' Quejas, o la Maja y el Ruiseñor and Liszt's Sonata in B minor S. 178.

As always admission is free with a retiring collection in support of the concert series.

Kyle Nash-Baker (b. 1994) is a pianist/composer from Birmingham, based in London. He first started to teach himself to play piano aged 12 and began to write compositions after the colours he saw whilst playing them - a condition known as synaesthesia. At the age of 15 Kyle’s composition ‘Red’ reached number 1 in the classical iTunes download charts and held this position for over three weeks. After hearing his music he was invited to write for people and play all over the country, including Vivienne Westwood who asked him to write a suite of works to perform at her fashion show at Paris Fashion Week. During 2013 Kyle toured Budapest and Switzerland and was featured in the Cartagena festival in Colombia with the violinist Geza Hosszu-Legocky and his string ensemble, sharing concerts with such artists as Sergei Babayan and the Borodin Quartet. Being predominantly self-taught until receiving a place at the Trinity Laban conservatoire of music and dance, he now studies with Gabriele Baldocci and Mikhail Kazakevich.

Taking a great interest in a wide range of repertoire, particularly in the works of Beethoven, Schubert and Debussy, he has since taken part in masterclasses with great artists such as Martino Tirimo, Philip Fowke, Peter Donohoe, Pascal Rogé, Antti Siirala and Olivier Gardon.

Most recently Kyle was awarded 1st Prize in the Stratford and East London piano competition including the Felix Marr prize and 2nd prize in the Christopher Duke international piano competition. Kyle was a semi-finalist in the piano section of the Tunbridge Wells International Music Competition and a semifinalist at the Livorno International Piano Competition. He has been a finalist in the Alfred Kitchin Schumann competition and twice in the John Longmire Beethoven competition.

Also an active chamber musician taking a keen interest in accompanying lieder, he won the Lillian Ash duo competition with his duo partner Michael Lafferty in 2015. In 2018 he took part in a masterclass at Wigmore Hall alongside Michael with Thomas Quasthoff, and in 2019 he performed once again at Wigmore Hall in a masterclass with György Pauk as part of a piano trio.

Kyle looks forward to continuing his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Charles Owen.