Biography:

Sebastian Stanley, the 26-year-old English pianist, was born in Andalucia, southern Spain and moved to Britain aged 4. He had his first piano lesson aged 13 with a local teacher in West Sussex. After showing great promise he was accepted into the Royal College of Music Junior Department just 2 years later where he studied with Emily Jeffrey.  By the time he was 17 he knew he wanted to make music his life and was accepted by the RCM as a full time Bmus (Hons) student, under Niel Immelman’s guidance. In 2008 he graduated with Distinction from the Royal College of Music with his Advanced PGDip after studying with Ruth Nye and with the generous help of the Michael Whittaker scholarship. He has most recently been working with the guidance of Christopher Elton, Head of Keyboard Studies at Royal Academy of Music.

Sebastian has actively pursued a performing and teaching career since he left the RCM. He has performed as a soloist in the USA, Germany, onboard cruise liners worldwide and in over 100 venues all over the UK. His concerto repertoire includes concertos by Liszt, Rachmaninov, Beethoven, Mozart, Grieg and Ravel. Most recently he has given recitals at the Pound Art's centre, Newport Music Club and St Albans music festivals to great acclaim. (See reviews)

Winner of several international prizes including the coveted Chappell Medal at the RCM (2006), the London Emanuel Trophy (2007) and 1st Prize in the International Louise Henriette competition in Germany (2004), Sebastian aims to become a highly successful international soloist and professor. He is grateful for receiving tuition from some of the biggest names in the piano world, namely Menhaem Pressler, Shai Wosner, Claude Frank, Gary Graffman, Olga Kern, John Lill, Joanna MacGreggor and Stephen Kovacevich to name a few. He has been a regular accompanist for many instrumentalists and his permanent duo partnership with Jonathan Parkin on Clarinet has seen the pair give many recitals around Britain, with a strong focus on the British Clarinet and Piano repertoire.

Sebastian has released two commercial CD’s and is looking forward to a 3 year contract with EMEC Discos of Madrid, where he will be making a number of recordings of Spanish repertoire, including a world premier disc of unknown 19th century Spanish music.