Our brilliant Musical Director Lana Bode comes fresh from releasing her five-star (BBC Music Magazine) debut album with Marta Fontanals-Simmons - I and Silence: Women’s Voices in American Song, and we can't get enough - check it out on Spotify here (other music players are available...)
There'll be sneak peeks of this stellar team all week #generators, but for now we will leave you with the full low-down on Lana...
Lana Bode is an American-British pianist, programmer and artistic director, highly acclaimed for her performances of contemporary music and innovative cross-arts programming. She performs as a solo pianist and in collaboration with leading singers and instrumentalists including Robert Cohen, Marcus Farnsworth, Marta Fontanals-Simmons, Anna Harvey, Robert Murray, Mark Padmore, Lucy Schaufer and James Turnbull.
Born in California, Lana spent her school years in Washington, D.C. where she studied with prominent American contemporary pianist Lisa Emenheiser, who introduced her to new music and extended techniques. Lana won a long list of scholarship awards supporting her BMus studies with Edward Auer at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she graduated at the age of 20 with High Distinction and the Founders Scholar Award.
She subsequently settled in the UK where she won a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She studied piano accompaniment with Andrew West and contemporary piano with Rolf Hind, also receiving instruction from Julius Drake, Graham Johnson and Iain Burnside. Her final recital was awarded the coveted Concert Recital Diploma, and she received her MMus with Distinction. On graduation, she was awarded a two-year accompaniment fellowship at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance. She has now joined the faculty of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she leads postgraduate discussion groups and directs the Voiceworks contemporary song project.
Lana was the inaugural winner of the Viola Tunnard Young Artist award, resulting in a year-long residency at Snape Maltings under the mentorship of Roger Vignoles. Other prizes include Das Lied (finalist), Oxford Lieder Young Artist programme (finalist), Wigmore Hall Song Competition (semi-finalist), YCAT (semi-finalist) and the Paul Hamburger Prize for Song Accompaniment. She has also been selected for a number of fully-funded young artist programmes, where she has studied under Malcolm Martineau and Roger Vignoles. Lana is a Samling Artist, a Leverhulme Artist, a Park Lane Group Young Artist and an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme.
A champion of new music, Lana is well-versed in extended techniques for the piano. She is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Virginia Woolf & Music concert project, through which she has commissioned and premiered a number of new works. She frequently collaborates with leading composers including Alison Bauld, Harrison Birtwistle, Jonathan Dove, Sadie Harrison and Judith Weir. Her performance of Birtwistle’s The Sadness of Komachi with tenor Robert Murray was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 Hear and Now and described by The Guardian as “excellent.”
Lana’s recital career has taken her from major London venues to festivals around the UK including Aldeburgh Festival, Barbican Hall, Oxford Lieder Festival, Purcell Room, Snape Proms, St James Piccadilly and St Martin-in-the-Fields. In August 2019 she released her highly-acclaimed debut album I and Silence: Women’s Voices in American Song with mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons. The 2019-20 season sees her perform her debut recitals at Kings Place and Wigmore Hall.