MARGARET COPESTAKE (Piano)

Margaret studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London. She specialises in the performance of chamber music which includes piano duo with harmonium and piano duo.

Her first solo BBC broadcast was at the age of seventeen. Her chamber music performances have included a live BBC broadcast  of Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet with members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Shostakovich and Martinu ‘cello sonatas for New Zealand Radio, Mozart’s Piano and violin sonatas with John Stephens at Ickworth House for the National Trust’s Centenary Television programme.

Various other performances include the Greenwich Festival, Kilkenny Castle, Blackheath Concert Halls, Cambridge University Concert Hall, Leighton House, Leeds Town Hall. She has performed the Dvorak Piano Quintet with the Alberni String Quartet at Madingley Hall, Cambridge in addition to recitals in many other venues. As a soloist Margaret has performed numerous concerti in London and Cambridge, including the Three Piano Concerto by Mozart.

Notable concerts at the University Concert Hall, Cambridge, included Grainger’s Warriors and Stravinsky’s Les Noces, which were multi-piano events. Her piano duo with Peter Britton has given numerous performances and their CD recording of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring has been played on many occasions by both Radio 3 and Classic FM and was also a “Desert Island Discs” choice .

She has a wide experience as an accompanist, including London professional orchestral auditions, recitals with singers and instrumentalists ranging from violin to double-bass, flute to bassoon and trumpet to tuba. Margaret has also accompanied for various competitive music festivals.

She has tutored Advanced Piano Workshops in Taiwan and at Goldsmiths’ College London, organised Residential Piano workshops in Oundle and until recently lectured at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge teaching the BA and MA piano students.