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Acknowledged as one of Britain's finest pianists, Lucy Parham first came to public attention when she won the Piano Final of the 1984 BBC Young Musician of the Year. Since then, she has played throughout the UK with most of the major British orchestras and is a frequent recitalist at the Wigmore Hall. She has toured the USA with the BBC Concert Orchestra on their 50th anniversary, Mexico and Turkey with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and abroad with Russian State Symphony, Sofia Philharmonic, Polish National Radio SO and L'Orchestre National de Lille.

She has made numerous recordings including Rhapsody in Blue (EMI Gold) and concertos by Ravel, Fauré and Franck (RPO records). Her CD of Clara and Robert Schumann Concertos (BBC CO/Sanctuary) won the BBC Music Magazine "Critics' Choice of the Year".

Her life-long passion for the music of Schumann inspired the original concept of the words and music evening, Beloved Clara. The CD of Beloved Clara (ASV) was released to critical acclaim. Two further evenings, Liszt - An Odyssey of Love and Nocturne - The Romantic Life of Frédéric Chopin premiered in the London Pianoforte Series at the Wigmore Hall. Actors who appear in these programmes include Martin Jarvis, Joanna David, Edward Fox, Juliet Stevenson, Alex Jennings, Sam West, Rosamund Pike, Charles Dance and Harriet Walter. In 2006 she was the director of the Schumann Anniversary Festival at Cadogan Hall and later this year she is the Director of Schumann 200 Festival to be held at King’s Place.

Lucy Parham has been a frequent guest presenter for BBC Radio 3 on many programmes including CD Review, Building a Library and Composer of the Week. She was on the jury for the Final of BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2008 and 2010 and in 2006 and 2009 she was the commentator for the Leeds International Piano Competition on BBC TV. In July she will be a guest at the BBC Proms discussing Robert and Clara Schumann for Radio 3.