Collaborative pianist Ilan Kurtser is a Samling Artist, Britten-Pears Young Artist and Leeds Lieder Young Artist. He has won numerous prizes in competitions in the UK and abroad, including First Prize at the Copenhagen International Lied Duo Competition, Kathleen Ferrier Awards, Help Musician’s Accompanist Prize in memory of Arthur and Gwyneth Harrison, Edith Poulsen Competition Accompanist Prize, Bampton Classical Opera Competition Accompanist Prize and the three major accompaniment prizes at the Royal Academy of Music.
Ilan was a Bicentenary Scholar at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied Piano Accompaniment under the guidance of Michael Dussek, James Baillieu and Malcolm Martineau. As part of his Bicentenary Scholarship, he is recording his debut CD of the complete Goethe-Lieder by Hugo Wolf.
Concert highlights have included recitals with violist Paul Silverthorne in London and Museo del Violino in Cremona, Italy, recital with mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston in Leeds Lieder Festival, recital with Elizabeth Watts in Jersey, and performances in Wigmore Hall, International Lied Festival Zeist, Sage Gateshead, Leeds Victoria Hall and Jerusalem Music Centre.
Ilan’s early training was in Israel with Enn Wittenberg and later at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Tel-Aviv University with Asaf Zohar. He studied at Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts and participated in the David Goldman Chamber Music Program for Outstanding Young Musicians (Jerusalem Music Centre).
Ilan is currently a Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music where he enjoys curating concerts for the Academy Song Circle and Academy Voices concert series, teaching and coaching singers and pianists. Ilan is looking forward to making his debut at the Aldeburgh Festival in June 2024.
