Pianist Eleanor Hodgkinson divides her time between performing, teaching and writing.
Recitals have taken her throughout the UK and abroad as both soloist and chamber musician.
In 2020 Volume 1 of the complete piano works of Nino Rota was released on the Naxos Grand Piano label:
“Ms Hodgkinson plays all beautifully, with a solid warm tone that draws the listener into the music. The sound is exceptional. I enjoyed this.”– American Record Guide, 2020
A versatile performer, she has been part of numerous cross-genre projects, having performed and recorded with Mid-Wales Opera, Southern Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Swan and Nevill Holt Opera; this includes commissions, broadcasts on BBC radio, recordings for Somm Records and outreach work. She has long-standing duos with cellist Nick Stringfellow and pianist Jakob Fichert.
As a writer she has devised many education projects and in 2014 she founded BabyGigs, a C.I.C. which presents musical events for under 7s and their adults. The company is frequently commissioned for community projects and their musical story shows have featured in many UK festivals. She also works as a freelance workshop leader for companies such as Carbon Theatre, Groundworks Northamptonshire and Culture Leicestershire.
Eleanor is the Keyboard Coordinator at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music where she has taught piano and chamber music for over 20 years. She is a Principal Lecturer in Piano at Leeds Conservatoire and an external examiner at Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal College of Music. Eleanor is regularly invited to give masterclasses and adjudicate competitions in conservatoires and schools and is also a trainer and examiner for the ABRSM.
An award-winning student, Eleanor studied with Renna Kellaway and Carole Presland at the Royal Northern College of Music. She undertook the postgraduate course in accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music with Malcolm Martinueau, with further study at IMS Prussia Cove and with her piano trio at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada. In 2013 Eleanor obtained an MA in Music Psychology from the University of Sheffield. Her dissertation on improvisation and performance anxiety was awarded a Distinction and formed the basis of a chapter in ‘New Thoughts on Piano Performance’ published by LIPS.
