Katharine Durran has developed a highly acclaimed career as solo pianist, exponent of new music, chamber musician and song accompanist.
She gave her first concerto performance in Edinburgh at the age of 11. After reading Music at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, she studied at the Royal College of Music under Kendall Taylor and Geoffrey Parsons. More recent studies were with the late Joyce Rathbone.
For ten years she was pianist of the award-winning group Tapestry. Her other ensembles have included Onyx (clarinet, 'cello and piano) and the Giovanni Piano Trio & Ensemble.
Highlights of recent seasons have included trio concerts with former BBC Young Musicians of the Year David Pyatt and Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne, recitals with violinists Madeleine Mitchell and Gina McCormack, the complete Beethoven 'cello sonatas with Sebastian Comberti, and song recitals with many leading singers.
She has had a duo partnership with ‘cellist Veronica Henderson since their childhood together in Edinburgh. Her recital programme with Stephen Stirling, The Romantic French Horn, has proved a popular favourite, as has her Two Piano Duo KDKDK with Kirsteen Davidson Kelly, performing programmes including works such as Holst’s The Planets, Debussy’s En Blanc et Noir, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. She also has a virtuoso, versatile and pioneering Piano Duet Partnership with composer and pianist Peter Cowdrey.
Katharine has an extensive solo piano repertoire and always designs her solo piano recital programmes to suit promoters’ requirements – she has created sixteen short sample programmes and is always happy to mix-and-match these to suit requests.
Other recent projects include performing late Beethoven alongside J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations and the commissioning of three new extended settings for mezzo and piano of the poetry of Friedrich Rückert. Her groundbreaking enterprise with Alison Smart of the BBC Singers, New French Song, has involved working with thirty-two of Britain’s leading composers, and has resulted in the creation of a whole new song recital repertoire for the 21st century.
Katharine’s current project plans include performing the complete Mozart sonatas for piano and violin and the complete piano trios of Brahms, all programmed to be linked contextually with either their predecessors and their successors. Please enquire regarding programme details and availability.
Her many CD recordings with singers have been highly acclaimed, and her debut solo album was a much praised recording of the complete Toccatas of J.S.Bach, which led to her featuring in three Piano Magazine symposiums, discussing J.S. Bach, British piano music and issues relating to women pianists of today. She also has an ongoing and popular recording and performance collaboration Bràthair with her son, the composer Joseph Stevenson.
As the commissioner of new works for solo piano and for ensembles she has performed numerous premières on BBC Radio 3 and on television, as well as discussing the rôle of song accompanist in today’s musical society. Tracks from her CDs have often been featured on BBC radio programmes, including Night Waves, Composer of the Week, In Tune, Midnight Oil and Private Passions.
Katharine works as both teacher and collaborative pianist at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and also works extensively conducting choirs, teaching singing and running choral groups for all ages. She is the founder director of Moffat Children’s Choir and also directs the Balliol Singers, Dumfries and Galloway’s specialist a cappella chamber choir.
Contact:
07811 316400
kate@durran.org.uk