Frances Wilson (AKA The Cross-Eyed Pianist) handles publicity for the following artists and arts organisation:
Tom Hammond – conductor
After his selection by Sir Charles Mackerras as the first Junior Fellow in Conducting at Trinity Laban Conservatoire (2006-08), Tom Hammond has developed a rich and musically diverse career that encompasses working with top-flight professionals, youth orchestras and non-professional musicians, leading education projects, producing recordings, and directing a major new festival.
Winning awards and critical acclaim en route, Tom has built a reputation for developing ensembles musically whilst engaging in thoughtful programming, championing living composers, developing relationships with outstanding soloist, and establishing outreach programmes.
In January 2020 Tom is involved in “an absolute dream of a project” when he conducts the Orchestra of the Swan in an all-Sibelius programme, featuring violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen.
Helen Anahita Wilson – pianist and composer
Critically acclaimed pianist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and musical explorer, Helen Anahita Wilson released her debut solo album BHOOMA in 2018. Her compositions are inspired by jazz and Asian musics, and fuse Indian textures, Persian rhythms and Japanese minimalism. Her performances are intimate, sensuous occasions.
May 2019 saw the release of her second album DIWAN in collaboration with master Indian tabla player Shahbaz Hussain.
“an inspired pairing” (The Wire)
“hypnotic…….a spiritual connection with sound” (Qwest TV)
James Lisney – concert pianist
James Lisney enjoys a rich musical life, moving seamlessly from concerto and recital soloist to chamber musician, song accompanist and pianist director, and his career has taken him to many prestigious venues and gained invitations to appear with major orchestras. Highlights include residencies at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Carnegie Recital Hall in New York. His recordings (on Naxos, Bis, Somm, Olympia and Carlton) have gained the highest recommendations. Recent seasons have seen him perform Schubert cycles in the Oxford International Piano Series, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the first Schubert piano sonata cycles on the Indian subcontinent, and his recital debut at the Prague Rudolfinum
The main focus of James Lisney’s 2019/20 season is ‘Endgame’, a series of concerts exploring the notion of Late Style through the music of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin – four composers who are particularly close to his heart, and whose late piano music is some of the most fascinating, intriguing and endlessly satisfying in the pianist’s repertoire.
As a member of the Lisney Trio, he will also be performing with his daughters Joy and Emma in programmes featuring some of Beethoven’s best-loved ensemble works and Messiaen’s monumental Quartet for the End of Time (with Michael Whight, clarinet).
“I have nothing but praise for James Lisney’s piano playing; he combines velvet touch and wide range of colour with complete understanding of phrasing and dynamic shading. This is someone who can really give the mechanical box of wires and wood a singing soul.” (The Telegraph)
Joy Lisney – cellist, conductor, composer
Praised for her stylish playing, musical maturity, formidable technical finesse and keen advocacy for new music, Joy Lisney is one of the most exciting young musicians to emerge in recent years in a busy career combining the cello with composing and conducting.
She has been performing internationally since her teens, at leading venues including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Queen’s Hall Edinburgh, St. George’s Bristol, Wigmore Hall and the Southbank Centre, in concerts featuring some of the best known works for cello as well as specially-commissioned new music and her own compositions. She premiered own composition ‘ScordaturA’ for solo cello in 2017 at St John’s Smith Square as part of the Park Lane Group concert series, and in June 2019 she performed her own transcription of Bach’s iconic Chaconne from the D minor violin Partita to a sold out Purcell Room at London’s Southbank Centre.
The current season includes performances of the Elgar Cello Concerto and the Brahms Double Concerto (with Emma Lisney, violin), the premiere of several new compositions for chamber ensemble, and concerts at Temple Music Foundation, West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge, St George’s Bristol, the Purcell Room, and St John’s Smith Square. In November, Joy conducts Seraphin Chamber Orchestra, which she co-founded with her sister Emma, in Busoni’s Piano Concerto and Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances at St John’s Smith Square.
Joy also performs with her sister and father in the Lisney Trio.
“Her sensitive musicianship was manifest. Her lyricism was uplifting and haunting. Her abrasive vitality in Suite Italienne was sensational.” (Classical Source)
7 Star Arts
7 Star Arts presents a diverse range of unique and original productions, often combining words and music, and words, music and art, designed for festivals, arts centres and small-scale venues.
7 Star Arts works with a number of internationally-renowned classical artists, including pianists Viv McLean, Anthony Hewitt and Clara Rodriguez, and violinist David Le Page, as well as cutting-edge jazz musicians of the younger generation.
From the life stories of the great composers to the history of cabaret, experience something different with 7 Star Arts……
“Gershwin is brought to life with the delightful interweaving of words and music” (ArtMuseLondon.com on ‘Classic Gershwin’)
“an absorbing, moving and beautifully presented evening of words and music” (audience member on ‘Divine Fire’)
