Biography
Christopher Glynn is a Grammy award-winning pianist and accompanist, working with leading singers, instrumentalists and ensembles in concerts, broadcasts and recordings throughout the world. He is also Artistic Director of the Ryedale Festival, programming around 60 events each year in the many beautiful and historic venues of Ryedale, North Yorkshire.
Described by The Times as ‘a superb accompanist’ and praised in Gramophone for his ‘breathtaking sensitivity’, Chris has performed with singers including Sir Thomas Allen, John Mark Ainsley, Sophie Bevan, Claire Booth, Susan Bullock, Allan Clayton, Lucy Crowe, Sophie Daneman, Bernarda Fink, Michael George, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Christiane Karg, Jonas Kaufmann, Andrew Kennedy, Yvonne Kenny, Dame Felicity Lott, Christopher Maltman, Mark Padmore, Joan Rodgers, Kate Royal, Toby Spence, Bryn Terfel, Robin Tritschler, Ailish Tynan, Roderick Williams, Catherine Wyn Rogers, Elizabeth Watts and many others. He also has performed with instrumentalists including Julian Bliss, Andrej Bielow, Adrian Brendel, Michael Collins, Nicholas Daniel, David Garrett, Tine Thing Helseth, Daniel Hope, Fenella Humphries and Steven Isserlis; and with ensembles including the Elias and Heath Quartets, Britten Sinfonia and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He often performs with The Sixteen.
Chris was born in Leicester and read music at New College, Oxford, before studying piano with John Streets in France and Malcolm Martineau at the Royal Academy of Music. His many awards include a Grammy, the accompaniment prize in the 2001 Kathleen Ferrier competition, the 2003 Gerald Moore award and the 2002 Geoffrey Parsons award. Since making his debut at Wigmore Hall in 2001, Chris has performed in major concert venues and festivals throughout the world, including at the BBC Proms, Carnegie Hall, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham and Oxford Lieder Festivals, Royal Opera House, Barbican, Southbank Centre and as far afield as Japan, Brazil and Sri Lanka. Chris is regularly heard on BBC Radio 3 and has made over 20 recordings on labels including Hyperion, Decca, DG, Coro, Berlin Classics and Signum.
Chris enjoys working with young musicians and is a Professor at the Royal College of Music, an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and a course leader for the Samling Foundation. He has also been an adjudicator for many international competitions. He has curated a concert series for the Wigmore Hall featuring the complete songs of Ravel and premiered works by composers including James Macmillan, Roxanna Panufnik, Judith Weir and Eric Whitacre.
Highlights include recording the piano soundtrack to the film Altamira (starring Antonio Banderas and Goldshifteh Farahani), giving the world premiere of a newly-discovered work by Mendelssohn on BBC Radio 4, performances at the BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall and with the Richard Alston Dance Company. Recent and future plans include Winterreise with Mark Padmore at the St Endellion Festival, a series of five concerts he has curated for the Wigmore Hall entitled Songbooks, performances at the Bath Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, performances and recordings of the complete Beethoven Sonatas with Rachel Podger, recitals with Roderick Williams at the Lammermuir and Oxford Lieder Festivals, recitals and recordings with Nicky Spence and dramatized performances of Winter Journey with Roderick Williams and Streetwise Opera.
In 2016/17 he gave the first London performances of newly-commissioned translations by Jeremy Sams of Schubert’s song cycles, with Toby Spence, Roderick Williams and Sir John Tomlinson at the Wigmore Hall. These are now being recorded by Signum Records. He has also commissioned a new translation of the Wolf Italian Songbook which had its premiere at the Chiltern Arts Festival in 2019 with singers including Roderick Williams, Nicky Spence, Katie Bray, Rowan Pierce and James Newby.
