Article from "The Times", Wednesday 10 November 1999

SIMON CRAWFORD-PHILLIPS

Age: 23

Profession: Classical pianist.

Current activitiy: He plays Gershwin's Piano Concerto with the Berkshire Youth Orchestra tonight at the Music for Youth Schools Proms at the Albert Hall. "I've loved the piece since I was a kid but I've never had a chance to play it before."

Prodigal history: A former leader of the Eton College Orchestra, he graduated with first class honours from the Royal Academy of Music earlier this year, where he studied under Hamish Milne.

Career prospects: As a piano duo with Philip Moore and in the Kungsbacka Piano Trio with Malin Broman (violin) and Jesper Svedberg (cello), the world appears to be his concert platform. "I'm trying to get out there and play in a lot of different places. The Trio are performing a Mozart programme at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on February 20. But before then I'm off to Hungary for some more lessons."

Why Hungary? "Serenc Rados in Budapest is my mentor. I studied with him there for a year and he taught me to find an emotional response to a score, to react instinctively to a piece as well as to analyse it technically."

Any recording work? "The Trio won the prize at The Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in July. Arising out of that we are making a CD for Naxos early next year. We are still choosing the repertoire but it will probably be Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven."

What about money? "If you want to be making money you don't do this. My brother has just got a very highly paid job in the City as a media analyst. But I wouldn't change places with him for ten times the salary. It's a luxury to be paid to make music."

Ambition: "My main ambition is not to lose sight of the fact that I love the music I'm playing. Everything else is secondary to that."

Nigel Williamson