Simon Callaghan, BBC National Orchestra of Wales & William Boughton
Biography Simon Callaghan, BBC National Orchestra of Wales & William Boughton
Simon Callaghan
performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in parallel with his highly successful career as a recording artist. In response to regular performances at the UK’s major concert halls, international tours to Asia, North America and Europe, and an extensive, acclaimed discography, Callaghan has developed a wide following. A favourite performer at the globally renowned Husum Festival of Piano Rarities in Germany, Callaghan’s recent sell-out concert was praised by VAN Magazine as a ‘cleverly curated recital full of discoveries’ and by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as ‘technically brilliant’.
His recital partners have included Adrian Brendel, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Feng Ning, Raphael Wallfisch, Samuel West, Prunella Scales and Timothy West. He is a founding member of the London Piano Quartet and has a duo partnership with BBC Young Musician of the Year 2020 String Category winner Coco Tomita.
Callaghan’s repertoire includes over seventy concertos, highlights of the standard solo and chamber works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and much that is rare and unexplored. One cornerstone of his work is a commitment to British music, and he has now reached the third volume of a series presenting premiere recordings of British concertos with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (Lyrita). Callaghan has also made first recordings of the complete piano music by Rebecca Clarke, George Dyson and William Busch. The present release is Callaghan’s fourth contribution to Hyperion’s celebrated Romantic Piano Concerto series. His first Hyperion album of concertos by Roger Sacheverell Coke with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins formed part of his successful PhD project at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Callaghan has also recorded for Orchid Classics, Danacord, Somm, Resonus, Convivium and EM Records. His reputation and experience in chamber music led to his accepting the role of Director of Music at London’s celebrated Conway Hall, where he curates one of the longest-running series of its kind in Europe. He was elected a Steinway Artist in 2012.
