Esther Knight

Esther Knight, award winning accompanist and chamber musician, is currently in the final stages of her MMus in piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Malcolm Martineau and James Baillieu. As the winner of the Flora Nielsen Accompanists Prize for French song 2019, and winner of the Major Van Someren-Godfrey Accompanist’s Prize for English Song 2018, Esther is specialising in song recital accompaniment, supported by Talent Unlimited. Recent projects include Schubert’s Winterreise, Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel, and songs by Debussy, Rachmaninoff, and many other composers. One of Esther’s current projects explores the theme of streams and rivers in German Lieder, exploring how nature and emotions are woven together in the poetry and music of this repertoire. Esther previously studied piano at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with Isobel Anderson and Graeme McNaught, graduating in 2015. During her undergraduate studies, she enjoyed many successes as a soloist, achieving ‘Highly commended’ in the Bach competition 2014, ‘Commended’ in the Governor's Recital Prize for Piano 2015, and performed in the Edinburgh Fringe in 2015. In the two years between her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, Esther took lessons with Jonathan Plowright, gave local recitals with violinists and singers, and took part in a project performing Grieg's songs in Bergen, in addition to working in Glasgow as a piano teacher, choir accompanist and ballet pianist.