Patrons, Staff, and Trustees

A passionate advocate for fairness and reform in the international competition sector, Fiona also contributes regularly to public debate on the future of classical music, championing excellence, care and opportunity for the next generation of artists.

In 1972 Murray won the Leeds International Piano Competition, which led to solo recital engagements throughout Europe. In 1973 he gave his first concert at the Aldeburgh Festival, where he worked closely with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, accompanying the latter in many lieder recitals. He was co-artistic director of the Festival from 1981 to 1989.

He has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields since 2000 and regularly tours with them as both conductor and pianist.

Murray has recorded an extensive discography and in October 2016 released a highly anticipated recording of Bach French Suites, his first album on the Deutsche Grammophon label.

In 2004 Murray was awarded an honorary KBE in recognition of his outstanding service to music.

Heralded by the New York Times as “the hottest artist on the classical music planet”, Lang Lang works with the most excellent classical musicians of our time. He has formed ongoing collaborations with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Barenboim and Christoph Eschenbach and performs with the world’s top orchestras, such as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics as well as America’s leading orchestras. Lang Lang plays sold-out concerts in the major concert halls of every continent in the world.

For about a decade Lang Lang has contributed to musical education and support for children worldwide. In 2008 he founded the “Lang Lang International Music Foundation” aimed at cultivating tomorrow’s top pianists, championing music education at the forefront of technology, and building a young audience through live music experiences. Headquartered in New York City, the Foundation has implemented its programs in North America, Europe and Asia, and was awarded an ECHO Klassik special prize in 2015. In 2013 Lang Lang was designated by the Secretary General of the United Nations as a “Messenger of Peace” focusing on global education. He also currently serves on the Weill Music Institute Advisory Committee as part of Carnegie Hall’s educational program and is the youngest member of Carnegie Hall’s Artistic Advisory Board.

Lang Lang started playing the piano aged three, won the Shenyang Competition and gave his first public recital before the age of five, entered Beijing’s Central Music Conservatory aged nine, and won First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians and played the complete Chopin Études at the Beijing Concert Hall at thirteen. He left China for Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute, where he worked with the legendary pianist Gary Graffman. He was seventeen when his big break came, substituting for André Watts at the “Gala of the Century,” playing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach: he became an overnight sensation and the invitations started to pour in.

Lang Lang is leading the way in bringing music education into the 21st century through his highly regarded new publishing program, the Lang Lang Piano Academy, produced in collaboration with Faber Music. Mastering the piano, five progressive books exploring piano technique, launched the program, to which the latest addition is The Lang Lang Piano Method, an imaginative new tutor for complete beginners that is used in the public schools’ educational program “Keys of Inspiration.”

She was Artistic Director and Chair of the competition jury until 2015 when she retired at the age of 95. Her contribution to the city of Leeds was recognised in April 2006, when she was given the Freedom of the City of Leeds.