Alumni

John Reid

Pianist, Organ Scholar (1998-2002)
Website

“A thriving, welcoming and intimate College environment”

“Ten years after graduating, I’m aware more than ever that I should thank my eighteen-year-old self for having had sufficient foresight to apply to Clare. At the time, though, I wasn’t remotely astute. I made the significant decision to put myself through the rigours of Organ Scholarship trials and interviews simply on account of intuition: as a visitor, I had sensed that I could begin to define and clarify my (rather nebulous) hopes for a life in music best within this particularly thriving, welcoming and intimate College environment. Those values which I hold especially dear as a professional musician today – the need to think; to listen; and to strive for the apparently impossible – I learned at Clare; and I suspect that the many College contemporaries with whom I’m still lucky enough to work are sustained by similar ideals.”

John Reid’s career to date has shown him to be a pianist of notable versatility and range, with wide experience as an outstanding chamber musician, song accompanist, soloist and exponent of new music.

John Reid read music and musicology at Clare College, Cambridge, before taking up a scholarship to study with Michael Dussek at the Royal Academy of Music. In recital, he has worked with artists including singers Joan Rodgers, Dame Felicity Lott, Lucy Crowe, Nicholas Mulroy instrumentalists Thomas Gould, Alison Balsom, Jennifer Pike, Timothy Orpen, Sarah Williamson, Oliver Coates and William Bennett; as well as with groups including the the Aurora Wind Ensemble and members of the Northern Sinfonia and the Britten Sinfonia. He has given recitals at Wigmore Hall and the other major London venues.

He is a principal player of the Aurora Orchestra with whom he has appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival, at Kings Place, the BBC Proms and the Proms Plus series (as part of the Inspire competition for young composers).

He has recorded numerous times for Radio 3, most recently as part of the Genius of Mozart series. Nico Muhly (with Aurora for Decca). He was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Excellence on graduating, and is now an Associate of the RAM.