“A complete, natural and exceptionally gifted multi-talented musician with the brightest future ahead”
Murray McLachlan, www.murraymclachlan.co.uk
… stunning throughout, displaying not only a virtuoso technique but a flexibility and sensitivity to solo singers and choir alike”
Tim Brown
Collaborative Pianist/Répétiteur . . .
Toby is a highly experienced collaborative pianist and coach, working primarily in the field of opera. Opera credits as a répétiteur include: Falstaff, Così fan tutte, The Gondoliers, Utopia Ltd., A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Miserly Knight, Mavra, Don Giovanni, Candide, Ainadamar (UK premiere) (Scottish Opera); Pelléas et Mélisande (Byre Opera)Il Segreto di Susanna, Zanetto, Rita, Dido & Aeneas, The Angel Esmeralda (world premiere), Opera Makers 2020 (world premiere), Opera Scenes Autumn 2019 and Spring 2021 (GSMD). Forthcoming engagements include: Semele (Glyndebourne Festival 2023); Ainadamar (Welsh National Opera); Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Marx in London (Scottish Opera)
As an accompanist, Toby has played in venues including The Barbican, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and St. Giles’ Cathedral (Edinburgh), for artists including Wallis Giunta, Zoe Drummond, Dima Bawab, Isabel Pfefferkorn, Aidan Coburn, and Adam Maxey. He was awarded the Accompanist Prize in the 2019 Clare Song Competition, and in 2017 was part of the winning duo with soprano Olivia Brett. He is an alumnus of the Pembroke Lieder Scheme, and has accompanied masterclasses with Sir Thomas Allen, Thomas Quasthoff (Edinburgh International Festival), Wallis Giunta, Neal Davies, Andrew Staples, Nicholas Mulroy, Yvonne Howard, and Roger Vignoles.
Equally experienced as a solo pianist, Toby has performed in venues such as St. James’ Piccadilly, The Dior Chapel, Montauroux (FR) and Trinity College Chapel, and for festivals including the Musique Cordiale International Festival (FR) and the inaugural Muswell Hill Festival (2019); he has performed concertos under conductors including Natalia Luis Bassa (Grieg Piano Concerto), Graham Walker (Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5), and Joel Sandelson (Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue). He was a prize-winner in the Cambridge University Music Society (CUMS) Concerto Competition in 2016 and 2017, and won first prize at the national finals of the EPTA UK Piano Competition 2013. Toby studies with Masayuki Tayama (www.masatayama.com); he has participated in masterclasses with Stephen Hough, Leon McCawley, Tom Poster, Libor Novacek and Carlo Grante.