Eleanor Hodgkinson

A versatile chamber musician, she has been part of numerous collaborations and given many premieres of British music. Solo recital work has taken her to North America, Denmark, Holland, Germany and France. 2020 saw the release of Volume 1 of the Complete Solo Piano Works of Nino Rota on the Naxos Grand Piano label. Orchestral piano work with Mid-Wales Opera, Southern Sinfonia and Orchestra of the Swan has included commissions, broadcasts, recordings and outreach work. As a writer Eleanor has devised many education projects and in 2014 founded BabyGigs, a CIC specialising in concerts and events for under 5s and primary schools. The company is frequently commissioned for community projects and their musical story shows have featured in many UK festivals.

Eleanor studied piano and piano accompaniment at the Royal Northern College of Music with Renna Kellaway and Carole Presland before being awarded a scholarship to study accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music with Malcolm Martinueau. Additional scholarships enabled her piano trio to undertake a residency at Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada in 2001. In 2013 Eleanor obtained an MA in Music Psychology from the University of Sheffield; her dissertation on performance anxiety and improvisation was awarded a distinction and formed the basis of a chapter in New Thoughts on Piano Performance published by the London International Piano Symposium.

Eleanor is the Keyboard Coordinator at the Junior Academy department of the Royal Academy of Music where she teaches piano and chamber music. She also holds the posts of Senior Lecturer in Piano at Leeds College of Music, Visiting Tutor in Piano at Royal Holloway, University of London and trainer and examiner for the ABRSM. Many of her students have gone on to have performing careers in music while others have achieved success in national competitions, most recently winning the Keyboard Category of the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2020.