Bethan Scolding

Member Biography

Bethan is a classical pianist, based in London. She is a soloist, chamber musician, accompanist and collaborator. Her work includes classical recitals, film and dance accompanimemt, historically-informed performance and contemporary music. She has been praised for her sensitivity of touch, intuitive accompaniment skills and her animated and engaging introductions to the music she is performing. Bethan studied Music and English Literature at Cardiff University, graduating with First Class Honours and the John Morgan Lloyd Music Prize. She then completed an MMus in Piano Performance at Trinity College of Music, where she studied with Simon Young and Margaret Fingerhut. She now performs accross the UK as both a soloist and chamber musician.  She is the pianist of the Delphi flute & piano duo, with flautist Lucy Beveridge, and is an experienced vocal accompanist, performing French and German song repertoire, Baroque and Classical opera and contemporary vocal works. Bethan has premiered and performed solo and chamber works by contemporary composers, including Ed Scolding, Ashley James Turner and Hannah Varty. She is also interested in Historical Performance and was awarded a bursary to attend the 2014 Lythe Chamber Music Course, where she performed works for Fortepiano, Harpsichord and Clavichord. Bethan has worked on a number of multi-disciplinary projects. She collaborated with Bristol-based Third Stage Dance Company, with whom she created Piano Moves, a one-act dance show accompanied by solo piano, which she accopanied live in Bristol’s Tobacco Factory, the Pound Arts Centre, and the Exeter Ignite Festival, 2013. She also performed with dancers from LABAN Conservatoire of contemporary dance, creating an improvised work In Process that was performed in the Bonnie Bird Theatre in 2011. Bethan creates her own accompaniments for silent film, most recently working with the silhouette animations of German animator Lotte Reineger. Research in this area also led to her being awarded one of just two scholarships to attend the ‘The Sounds of Early Cinema in Britain’ conference at the 14th British Silent Film Festival at the Barbican in April 2011. Bethan also plays the violin, with a background in both folk and classical performance. She has played with the Cardiff University Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, and the Bristol Music Club Orchestra, performing in St. David’s Hall, The Wales Millennium Centre and St George’s, Brandon Hill. She is also a writer and librettist and her Aria ‘Not being Charles Freith’, created with composer Ed Scolding, was workshopped by Music Theatre Wales and later filmed.