Melbourne – Australia
Rhodri Clarke graduated with first class honours from the ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC, London in 2004 where he specialised in piano accompaniment, studying with Nigel Clayton and Roger Vignoles. He performs internationally as an accompanist, chamber musician and as a solo pianist.
Clark subsequently lived in the Netherlands where he collaborated with members of the ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW ORCHESTRA and worked privately as a repetiteur and freelance accompanist.
In 2010 he performed as a member of the chamber music group, the BOLIVAR SOLOISTS with the tenor Rolando Villazon on a ten concert tour of Europe, during which they performed at the BERLIN PHILHARMONIE, the VIENNA KONZERTHAUS, London’s ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL and THEATRE DES CHAMPS-ELYSEES in Paris.
He toured twice to Latin-America, firstly to Venezuela, with double bass player, Edicson Ruiz, a member of the BERLIN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, showcasing the music of Latin American composers alongside mainstream classical composers, and then to Mexico, performing Mexican folksongs in new arrangements, again with the tenor Rolando Villazon and the BOLIVAR SOLOISTS the program recorded for Deutsche Grammaphon entitled MEXICO! and released in September 2010. OPERA BRITANNICA wrote of these performances, Villazon was accompanied by the fantastic Bolivar Soloists… Played with astonishing vitality and verve, with special mention due to the very stylish pianist, Rhodri Clarke.
Other engagements as an accompanist have seen him perform at many prestigious European concert venues including WIGMORE HALL, ST. JAMES’S PICCADILLY, Berlin’s PHILHARMONIE and also at the LUCERNE INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL and he has accompanied Bryn Terfel at CARNEGIE HALL
He now makes his home in Melbourne but has worked in Australia on a number of occasions in the past, in 2005 accompanying the soprano Elizabeth Donovan on an intensive 3-month WELSH NATIONAL OPERA-funded period of study with the soprano Gwennyth Annear in Adelaide and in 2007 he performed as soloist and accompanist for the UK-based male voice, COMRADES CHOIR in a gala concert at SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE.
In 2014 Clarke appeared at the SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE in a performance with David Helfgott, of the two-piano version of Rachmaninov’s PIANO CONCERTO NO.3, continuing this association with Helfgott in subsequent seasons at BRIDGEWATER HALL in Manchester and London’s BARBICAN CENTRE, at the MUSIKVEREIN in Vienna and the KULTUR UND KONGRESSZENTRUM in Lucerne, at the TONHALLE in Zurich and LA SEINE MUSICALE in Paris. He returns to this collaboration playing the concerto on Helfgott’s 2024 farewell tour of the major Australian concert venues.
© Weaver Artist Management 2024
RECORDINGS
All enquiries to Jeff Weaver at Weaver Artist Management