Simon Lepper Talks About What It Takes To Be An Accompanist And Why the British Are So Awesome At It

I'm very glad to have recently made the acquaintance of Simon Lepper, the Head of Piano Accompaniment at the Royal College of Music in London. In an interview from a recent Vrije Geluiden episode, Simon talks about the British tradition of accompanying and how collaboration works so well with the British psyche. What particularly resonated with me was the way Simon explained how poetry informs his approach to the keyboard.

Kudos go to Vrije Geluiden for how they are able to bring to life the immediacy of classical music with such a contemporary and genuine context. If only this approach could be found more often in North American television and radio commentary...