Pianist Libby Burgess is well-known on concert stages across Britain, playing in the country’s major halls and festivals, on Radio 3, and on a range of recordings.
As both song specialist and chamber musician, Libby thrives on an exceptionally wide repertoire, and takes inspiration from the breadth of musicians with whom she works. Equally respected for her programming and curational skills, she is the founding Artistic Director of New Paths Music, where she has quickly been recognised for the striking creative tone of her programming. From 2018 to 2022 she was additionally Co-Artistic Director with Martin Roscoe of the Beverley Chamber Music Festival.
Libby’s current season includes a Radio 3 broadcast recital with Ailish Tynan from Oxford Lieder, a return to the Wigmore Hall with Alessandro Fisher and to Aldeburgh with Ben Hulett, broadcasts with the BBC Singers, and performances with Aoife Miskelly, Julian Bliss, Cara Berridge, Laura van der Heijden and the Maxwell Quartet.
Working often with living composers, Libby has most recently premiered Stephen McNeff’s Three Pieces for Piano and, with regular collaborator baritone Marcus Farnsworth, Everything Grows Extravagantly by Cheryl Frances-Hoad – selected by The Times as a highlight of 2021.
Libby is sought after as a vocal coach; she sat on the panel for Oxford Lieder’s Young Artist Platform 2022, and is a mentor in 2023 for the SongEasel Young Artist Programme. The seeds of her love for working with voices were sown in her role as organ scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, and nurtured at the piano during her postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music.
Libby was formerly Head of Keyboard at Eton College, is in demand as speaker and writer, and loves working in outreach contexts that seek to overcome barriers and share the power of music with everyone. Currently undertaking a nationwide Bach marathon, ‘Project 48’, Libby is performing the whole of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (‘The 48’) in every one of England’s 48 counties, in venues ranging from cathedrals and concert halls to houses, schools, barns and gardens. To date the project has raised over £29,000 for Help Musicians, Live Music Now, Future Talent and Youth Music.
'My time at the Academy definitely set me on the path of what I do now! The opportunity to work with so many different singers and instrumentalists, all in one concentrated bubble, was extraordinary. As a collaborative pianist I not only got input from my own piano teachers, but also from countless singing teachers, string professors, chamber music tutors, language coaches and opera staff: all of these things fed in to the portfolio of work that I now do. Perhaps most importantly of all, it was at the Academy that I formed many of the musical partnerships which even now are at the heart of my career.'
Libby Burgess