Eliza McCarthy

Biography

Eliza McCarthy was the winner of both top prizes at the British Contemporary Piano Competition 2013. A highlight in her career as a performer of contemporary classical and experimental music, that began in her home city of Philadelphia. After local successes, including the Philadelphia Orchestra Competition, she realised this was where she wished to focus her life.

Moving to England aged twelve, she won a place at the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School, and in 2003 accepted a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Ronan O’Hora. Her enthusiasm led her to one of Europe’s leading contemporary pianists, Rolf Hind; and after completing her Bachelor of Music, she began a Masters and subsequent Artist’s Fellowship under his guidance. Another significant factor in Eliza’s decision to attend the Guildhall was the opportunity to work regularly with the Drama Department. She co-devised several productions including Think Only This of Me, a production combining text, movement and her own original music, with Head of Acting Christian Burgess, composer Julian Philips and actor Dinah Stabb.

For the 2009/10 season she was selected as a Park Lane Group Young Artist, and has since had the opportunity to work with world-renowned musicians and composers including George Crumb, Tansy Davies, James MacMillan, Judith Weir - and John Adams, who remarked after her performance of his work Phrygian Gates: “In the hands of a great performer, things you never expected or even dreamed were in your music are suddenly revealed.” Most recently she has been working in collaboration with the composer Mica Levi on a series of solo piano works, which featured in Doug Aitken’s Station to Station festival at the Barbican Centre and David Byrne’s Meltdown festival in the summer of 2015.

In 2012 she became pianist for acclaimed Birmingham-based contemporary music ensemble Decibel. Described as performing “Unclassifiable, raw-nerve music of huge energy and imagination” (The Guardian), they perform new works by artistic director Ed Bennett, and collaborate regularly with such composers as Joe Cutler, Howard Skempton, Laurence Crane and Heiner Goebbels. As a soloist, she has performed at such leading venues as the Barbican, Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Vortex Jazz Club, King’s Place, Café OTO, The Forge, the Roundhouse, St. Martin in the Fields, Kettle’s Yard and Steinway Hall.

Eliza was instrumental in developing the highly successful Mindfulness Meditation pilot scheme at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She is currently training as a teacher of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in order to help performers overcome problems with anxiety and depression and began teaching MBSR at Guildhall in September 2015. She also teaches musicianship to the actors and is a tutor of contemporary piano performance at the Guildhall School.

By championing the new and experimental, Eliza is intent on pushing the boundaries of the concert experience and developing her audience through innovative, thought provoking programming.