Nigel Foster

Nigel Foster was born in London and studied piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music with Geoffrey Pratley, and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Graham Johnson and Iain Burnside. He also studied with Roger Vignoles. At both the Academy and the Guildhall he won every prize and award available for piano accompaniment, and he has since been appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. In 2015 Nigel was appointed a Steinway Artist.

Nigel enjoys a busy schedule performing on the concert platform. He has played for singers including Roderick Williams, Ailish Tynan, Nicky Spence, Elizabeth Watts, Kate Royal, Lotte Betts-Dean, James Gilchrist, Julien Van Mellaerts, Ashley Riches, Simon Wallfisch, Louise Winter, Ruby Hughes and Elizabeth Llewellyn, and instrumentalists including violinist Madeleine Mitchell. He performs at major UK venues including the Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Crush Room) and St John Smith Square in London, and St David’s Hall in Cardiff. Nigel has given concerts all over Europe; in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, The Netherlands and Greece, as well as in Asia (Japan, Malaysia), New Zealand and the Americas (USA, Colombia). He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM in the UK and on French, Welsh, and Greek television.

Nigel founded the London Song Festival in 2007 to promote the Song repertoire that he loves, and since then it has grown into one of Britain’s most innovative festivals, putting on themed concerts and masterclasses and providing a showcase for young up-and-coming singers and pianists. Details can be seen on www.londonsongfestival.org.

Nigel has given masterclasses and led workshops in the song repertoire at summer courses and music programmes all over the UK, in Belgium and Portugal (OperaPlus), Italy (Asolo Festival), Germany (Saarburg Festival), Luxembourg (Vianden Festival) and the USA (Summit City Art Song Festival and University of Toledo).

Nigel’s CD recordings include ‘The Silver Hound’, a disc of songs by Betty Roe, with Robin Tritschler, Sarah Leonard, Madeleine Mitchell and others, on the Divine Art label; several discs of contemporary music and anthologies of songs of Alun Hoddinott and Mansel Thomas with Jeremy Huw Williams for the Sain label and collections of English song with Stephen Varcoe. In 2023, a CD of Russian song with Iestyn Morris was released, the first time many of these songs have been recorded by a countertenor. Nigel features on the soundtrack of the French film ‘L’Homme est une Femme Comme les Autres’.