Ashley Fripp has given solo recital, chamber music and concerto performances in many of the most prestigious venues throughout the U.K., such as the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Cadogan Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, Bridgewater Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Birmingham Symphony Hall and the Royal Festival Hall. International invitations have taken him to Warsaw and Zelazowa Wola, Poland, and Stuttgart, Weimar and Regensburg, Germany.
He has won first prizes at many notable competitions, including the 1st Glasgow International Competition for Young Pianists in 2006, and in 2004 he reached the nationally televised Keyboard Section Final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year and won first prize in the BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composers’ Competition 2004 which resulted in a broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Ashley Fripp was born in Hampshire and studied piano at the Purcell School and the Royal College of Music Junior Department with Emily Jeffrey. During his time at the RCM he won the Marjorie Humby, Angela Bull, British Uruguayan Society and Teresa Carreño Memorial Prizes, as well as the Peter Morrison Concerto Prize, which resulted in a performance of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor with the RCM JD Symphony Orchestra. Upon leaving in July 2007, Ashley was awarded the Esther Coleman Prize, awarded to an outstanding student who has greatly contributed to the life of the Junior Department.
Concerto performances have included Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, KV. 488 at the official opening of Hampshire’s Thornden Hall, Liszt’s Totentanz with the Ealing Symphony Orchestra in February 2005 and April 2005 Ashley performed as soloist in Richard Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto with the RCM JD Symphony Orchestra in the final Richard Stilgoe Family Concert at the Royal Festival Hall. Other appearances have included Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor in Chichester Cathedral and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor.
Ashley is currently the inaugural Yamaha Artist Scholar at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he is studying with Ronan O’Hora, Head of Keyboard, provided with a full scholarship. Future engagements include a range of activities including a solo recital at St. James’s Piccadilly for the Beethoven Society of Europe, and performances of both Chopin Piano Concertos with the Regensburg Symphonieorchester at the Audimax Hall in Regensburg and a subsequent recording of both works in 2011.
September 2009