Piano accompanist

Piano accompanist

Time was when accompanists were for life, not just for Christmas. Nowadays, no longer contracted out to one 'star' performer for most of their working life, accompanists may find themselves having to do a variety of things from vocal coaching, staff accompaniment and repetiteur work to partnering a cellist or violinist in a Beethoven sonata in a windy hall out in the sticks.

'Accompanists have to be exceptional pianists first and foremost,' says John York, a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD) and senior music head at London's St Paul's Girls' School who has partnered many musicians over the years, including the likes of Sarah Walker and Raphael Wallfisch. 'You have to be able to play all the Chopin Etudes before you can play Die Schöne Müllerin,' he says. 'If your intention is to become an accompanist, then there is no alternative other than to do an undergraduate degree as a first study pianist, followed by some kind of postgraduate study as if you are going to play the Hammerklavier in the Wigmore Hall. There is no question that you have to be able to play the piano that well.'

York went through his college years (at the GSMD followed by postgraduate studies in Paris and Vienna) thinking he was going to play the Tchaikovsky piano concerto at the Proms. 'And so you should,' he says. 'I've had pupils come through the BMus course, do some postgraduate study in accompaniment or repetiteur studies and land themselves some very good jobs in those fields.'

York even had a student who went to the Salzburg Mozarteum to further his }solo work, was spotted by someone }who noticed that he could play virtually anything and was offered a place on the faculty. From there he became a continuo player and vocal coach and is not only head of opera at the University of Colorado, USA, but also a sought-after accompanist and conductor in his own right. 'He was very broad-minded,' says York. 'He uses his piano skills as a tool.'

With music conservatoires offering a range of postgraduate opportunities for the budding accompanist, whether it's in the field of vocal coaching, repetiteur work or chamber music, the place of study is very much up to the individual. There are also plenty of short summer courses for those in the mood for travel.

Finding work as an accompanist is becoming increasingly difficult for students leaving college, partly because of smaller opera companies closing. But York is still optimistic about the opportunities on offer: 'If you can coach, say, Peter Grimes from a full orchestral score, then you are extremely marketable. If you're good, you're bound to find something.'

Accompanists need to be excellent sight-readers and score readers (able to recognise harmonies quickly and not just double up the bass line); they also need to have good social skills and be good at languages (or at least be able to pronounce French, Spanish and German correctly).

'Singers, more than violinists and cellists, need pampering and need their egos massaging,' says York. 'But there are still one or two instrumentalists out there who love nothing more than to sit in front of you in their billowing dresses and expect you to busk away in the background for fear that you might disrupt their performance.'

Simon Lepper, 32, began his musical career at King's College, Cambridge. He then studied at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) as a solo pianist for a year, only to return later to the accompanists' course with Michael Dussek. 'I did a short summer course in Hungary with Joseph Seiger [who used to be Mischa Ellman's official accompanist], and he said he thought there was something special about the way I played and hence my change of direction. I was very glad that I did the solo course too, if only because it sorted out my technique. You don't want to have to think about it when people are throwing pieces you've never seen in front of you.'

Lepper, who spends much of his time now accompanying singers, never really considered being a performing musician. 'Although I had always done a lot of accompanying before, I never thought it was viable. I don't even know how it all happened.' Winning the Gerald Moore Award, the Royal Over Seas League competition, the Kathleen Ferrier Award and the Maggie Teyte Prize whilst still at the RAM probably helped.

'Being an accompanist is about trusting what you do as being a quality product. You obviously need to be able to get on with people and fade into the background when you have to, but at the same time be supportive as a person and a musician. If you're good at what you do, I certainly believe that you can make a better living out of it than a soloist. I do mixed vocal stuff, duo work and some chamber work and, if you like, you can always diversify into repetiteur work or playing for auditions for your bread and butter. It's also a very good way of making contacts. For example, I met Karen Cargill, who won the Ferrier, got on immediately and we've been working together ever since.'

For 25-year-old Alisdair Hogarth, founder of the six-piece Prince Consort (five singers and a pianist), the accompanying seed was planted whilst he was an undergraduate at Selwyn College, Cambridge. 'It must have had something to do with the choral traditions,' he says. He took a year off before going on to the Royal College of Music's accompanists' course, where he studied with John Blakely, supplemented with additional coaching from Roger Vignoles and John Fraser, one of the senior producers at EMI.

Using Graham Johnson's Songmakers' Almanac as an inspirational idea, the Prince Consort allows Hogarth to 'do my own thing, to have a degree of financial security and not have to rely on a singer to book me the whole time'. 'Moreover, accompanists are social people, and solo playing can be a really lonely world,' he concludes.

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