Kathryn Stott - Performance and Recording Career

Performance and Recording Career

Stott's career as a soloist was launched after she gained fifth place in the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1978. Her London début was at the Purcell Room the same year. She has since toured throughout Europe, Asia, America and Australia with a concert repertoire that encompasses concertos, solo piano music and chamber music. She is unusual in always performing from a score.

Stott has a particular affinity with English music, and her series of recordings of works by Frank Bridge, George Lloyd, John Ireland and William Walton is described as "distinguished" in Grove. She is also known for her love of French music, particularly the works of Gabriel Fauré, whose complete piano works she has recorded to critical acclaim. Contemporary classical music is another of Stott's specialities. She has given the first performances of many works, including a concerto by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Michael Nyman's The Piano Concerto and Graham Fitkin's Circuit (with Noriko Ogawa). Since the mid-1990s, she has also been interested in tango and other Latin dance music, which she describes as "primitive music, hard to place, both abrasive and tender".

Stott first met long-term collaborator, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, in 1978 when she "discovered a Chinese man in his underpants playing the cello" in her flat after returning from holiday (Ma had rented the flat without realising that it was shared). They have worked together since 1985; the pair frequently tour together and have made several joint recordings, including Soul of the Tango and Obrigado Brazil, which received Grammy Awards in 1999 and 2004. She also has long-standing collaborations with cellists Truls Mørk, Christian Poltéra and Natalie Clein, violinist Janine Jansen, and pianist Noriko Ogawa.