Heather Slade-Lipkin

Heather Slade-Lipkin is an English pianist, harpsichordist and teacher.

Life

Heather Slade-Lipkin was born into a musical family from Hoylake, Wirral, and by the age of six had already begun formal piano lessons with her mother Joan Slade, a disciple of Artur Schnabel, and then later studied with pianist Marie Gilcriest. She was soon winning many 1st Prizes at music festivals and aged 12 made her concerto debut with Mozart's Concerto in A major and Bach's D minor Concerto to critical acclaim. She gained her ARCM (Associate of the Royal College of Music) performer's diploma whilst still in high school and by the age of 16 she had also won 1st prize in the National Piano Competition.

As a result, she came to the attention of the celebrated piano professor Gordon Green, (who had studied with Egon Petri, a student of Busoni and Teresa Carreño, thus having piano descendancy from Carl Reinecke, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, Frédéric Chopin, Paderewski, Theodor Leschetizky, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Muzio Clementi, Gluck, and Bach) with whom she then studied at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). She also studied collaborative piano with Clifton Helliwell and later won scholarships to study with Kenneth Gilbert (with musical descendancy from Yvonne Hubert, Ruggero Gerlin, Wanda Landowska, Aleksander Michałowski, Ignaz Moscheles, Karol Mikuli, Frédéric Chopin, Carl Reinecke, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Marguerite Long, Alfred Cortot, Nadia Boulanger and Gabriel Fauré, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Muzio Clementi, Gluck, and Bach) and Huguette Dreyfus (with musical descendancy from Ruggero Gerlin, Wanda Landowska, Ignaz Moscheles, Aleksander Michałowski, Karol Mikuli, Frédéric Chopin, Carl Reinecke, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt, Lazare Lévy, Louis Diémer, Antoine François Marmontel, Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, François-Adrien Boieldieu, Cherubini, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Muzio Clementi, Gluck, and Bach) in Paris. On graduation she was appointed to the RNCM staff as a piano lecturer, official college collaborative pianist and repetiteur and was in addition appointed visiting professor of piano at Chetham's School of Music in 1971.

Heather Slade-Lipkin, building on her earlier success in the National Piano Competition, won 1st Prize in the 1974 National Harpsichord Competition and, in addition to her critically acclaimed London debut at the Purcell Room, gained universal recognition as a Finalist in the 1978 Paris International Fortepiano Competition. She went on to perform extensively as a soloist in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and the United States. In addition, she was invited to appear as a soloist with the CBSO under Sir Simon Rattle and has featured in various radio and television programmes for the BBC. Heather Slade-Lipkin's extensive repertoire spanning the 16th to 21st centuries is reflected in her critically acclaimed commercial recordings.

Heather Slade-Lipkin's contribution as piano professor is renowned and a number of her past students are now regarded as virtuosi. Internationally, her disciples have won major awards at International Piano Competitions such as 1st prize at the Naumberg International Competition, 1st prize in the 9th International Beethoven Competition in Vienna, 2nd prize in the Leeds International Piano Competition, 1st prize in the Bellini International Piano Competition in Italy, Gold Medal in the International Liszt Competition in Hungary, 2nd prize in the Incontro Internazionale Giovanni Pianisti di Senigallia in Italy, 2nd prize in the Internazionale Pianisti di Marsala in Sicily, 2nd prize in the Texas International Competition in USA and Education Awards in the World Piano Competition (now known as the London International Piano Competition).

Nationally, Heather Slade-Lipkin has nurtured an outright BBC Young Musician of the Year winner in addition to numerous first prize winners in the piano section of the BBC competition, first prizes in the Audi Musician of the Year, winners of the Julius Isserlis Prize and the Christopher Duke Award, a winner of the LPO/Pioneer prize and also winners of the Bromsgrove International Piano Competition and the Dudley International Young Musicians Platform. Her pupils have won major scholarships to the Curtis Institute, the Juilliard, the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Guildhall School of Music and Drama conservatoires of music.

Past and present students include Stephen Hough,^[1] Stephen Coombs,^[2] Leon McCawley,^[3] Sophie Yates,^[4] Robert Markham,^[5] Stephen Gosling,^[6] Phillip Moore,^[7] Roderick Chadwick,^[8] Jason Ridgway,^[9] Jonathan Scott,^[10] James Willshire,^[11] Faith Leadbetter,^[12] Tim Horton,^[13] Miles Clery-Fox,^[14] Anna Markland,^[15] Sarah Nicolls,^[16] Helen Sherrah-Davies,^[17] Jane Ford,^[18] Robert Emery,^[19] Joy Morin,^[20] Julia Hartmann,^[21] Nellie Seng,^[22] David Moss,^[23] Iulia Mocioc,^[24] Margaret Roberts,^[25] Jacqueline Leveridge,^[26] Eleanor Meynell,^[27] James May,^[28] Iain Clarke,^[29] Durness Mackay-Champion,^[30] and Anna Michels.^[31]

Recordings by Heather Slade-Lipkin include Jean-Philippe Rameau: The Second Book of Pièces de Clavecins^[32] and Contrasts with mezzosoprano Marilena Zlatanou.^[33]

Heather Slade-Lipkin is currently a Professor of Piano at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland senior department, and also tutors many nationally and internationally successful junior students on Saturdays.

References