Colin Stone first came to prominence in 1986 when he won the Royal Over-Seas League Piano Competition in London, his performance of Liszt’s Dante Sonata at the Queen Elizabeth Hall being a notable triumph.

In the same year, encouragement at the Busoni competition in Italy and a highly acclaimed Wigmore Hall debut launched his career as a soloist.

At the final of the prestigious Young Concert Artists Trust audition a year earlier, the famous conductor Sir Charles Groves praised the young pianist for his ‘rare musical qualities and tipped him to succeed at the very highest level’. Many concerto engagements followed including Mozart’s K271 in a tour of Italy with the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Beethoven’s Emperor at the Sheldonian Theatre, the two Brahms concerti, the Schumann at St. John Smith’s Square, the Tchaikovsky B flat minor, Rachmaninov’s 2nd, both Shostakovich concerti and the Cesar Frank with Grant Llewellyn and the National Centre for Orchestral Studies Orchestra.

In 1989 he made his debut on BBC Radio 3 and, following the success of his live Concert Hall broadcast in 1990 and the subsequent Prokofiev series, is regularly invited to record for Radio 3. A highlight of 1992 was a tour of Canada, which included a recording of a live recital at Concordia University for CBS in Montreal.

Also in 1992, he began a series of recordings for Pickwick’s IMP Masters label with the then recently formed London Mozart Trio.

Their recordings of Trios by Schubert and Dvorak were enthusiastically received by Gramophone magazine and their recording of Schubert’s Trio in B flat D.898 was the overall first choice from twenty recordings on the BBC Radios 3’s Building a Library; ‘The best since Casals, Cortot and Thibaud’.

Colin Stone’s first solo CD, of transcriptions by Prokofiev of his own theatre music, was released in 1994 on the United label and was followed by a CD for Olympia of the two piano sonatas by Shostakovich. The review for Classic CD magazine considered the Shostakovitch CD ‘an outstanding release’ and commented on the ‘overwhelming mastery’ of the performances: Gramophone magazine have included it in their Good CD Guide.

In partnership with the distinguished sound engineer and producer, Tryggvi Tryggvason, Colin released three CDs of solo piano music on the Merlin Classics label with major works by Schubert, Chopin and Schumann ,as well as music by contemporary composers—Andre Tchaikovsky, Malcolm Williamson and Robert Keeley. Colin gave the world premiere of Keeley’s piano concerto Entourages in a live broadcast on BBC Radio 3 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in March 2001.

 Colin Stone has a particular affinity with the music of Shostakovich. With Rustem Hayroudinoff, he gave the first performance in the West of the two-piano version of the Fourth Symphony, op. 43a, a work which they have recorded for Chandos “Revelatory version of a spectacular 20th – century orchestral masterwork,” Gramophone Magazine. Colin Stone also appears in the documentary film, “The Unknown Shostakovich” along with Vladimir Ashkenazy, Valery Gergiev, Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Maxim Shostakovich, first shown at the Barbican Cinema and subsequently broadcast on Sky Arts. He performed the complete cycle of 24 Preludes and Fugues Op.87 at Cadogan Hall in London in a concert (introduced by Vladimir Ashkenazy) to mark the centenary of the composer’s birth and has now recorded the cycle

Colin Stone studied privately with Norma Fisher from his mid teens up to the end of his time reading Music at Oxford University. Whilst at Oxford (1979-82) he was introduced to the pianist and composer André Tchaikowsky (1935-82) (www.andretchaikowsky.com) who became the younger pianist’s mentor and inspiration. Following André Tchaikovsky’s tragic and untimely death Colin Stone commenced post-graduate studies with Edith Vogel at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he remained until competition success launched his career in 1986. Further details of Colin Stone’s performance career, recordings and forthcoming concerts can be found on http://www.colinstone.co.uk .

Colin Stone’s experience as a teacher has been woven seamlessly into his development as a musician. His first students came from his mother (a well known local teacher) whilst only a teenager himself. Later, when he was studying at the Guildhall School, Colin was invited to teach at Harrow School and then the Watford School of Music. After he had become more established as a performer he became Assistant to the Head of Keyboard at the Royal Scottish Academy of |Music and Drama (1993-95) and, since 1999 has been a professor at the Royal Academy of Music.

He is now in demand for concerts and masterclasses in many parts of the world. This academic year alone he is performing and teaching in Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Spain, and Sweden. He has taught at the Chetham’s International Summer School for Pianists for several years and this year will be Artistic Director of the Harrow International Summer School for Pianists, supported by Vladimir Ashkenazy and sponsored by Steinway and Sons.

His greatest satisfaction as a teacher comes from seeing his students fulfil their potential and many of his former students from the Academy have now established themselves as successful performers and teachers.