Kathryn Stott is recognised internationally as one of Britain’s most versatile and imaginative musicians and among today's most engaging pianists. She is in demand for a wide variety of chamber music alliances, playing with some of the world’s leading instrumentalists, as well as appearing on major international concert platforms in recitals and concerto performances. She has also directed several distinctive concert series and festivals and has developed an extensive and exceptionally varied catalogue of recordings. Born in Lancashire, she studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music and was a prize-winner at the Leeds International Piano Competition 1978. In addition to her busy career as a performer worldwide, she is visiting professor at both the Royal Academy of Music, London and Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester.

She enjoys associations with many orchestras and is a favoured partner of many distinguished chamber musicians, This season she celebrates a fruitful quarter-of-a-century partnership with Yo-Yo Ma, in concerts, on tours and on recordings. She has developed shared musical interests with an eclectic group of performers and has a close involvement with many leading string quartets. She has made nearly a dozen appearances at the BBC Proms to which she returns next summer.

A particular interest in contemporary music has led to several world premieres. She is a remarkable exponent of tango and other Latin dance music, reflected in her collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma and leading South American musicians on the Grammy Award-winning Sony CD ‘Soul of the Tango’ and its successor ‘Obrigado Brazil’. In the recording studio she has created a large and eclectic body of work including concertos and solo repertoire on a wide variety of labels including many discs of solo pieces; chamber music CDs with Yo-Yo Ma, Truls Mørk, Christian Poltéra, the Hermitage Piano Trio and, most recently, with cellist Guy Johnston, (‘Milo’/Orchid Classics). In 2009 she was signed as an exclusive Chandos artist for all her solo piano work. Current and forthcoming recordings include three discs with the Doric String Quartet.

Kathryn Stott has been the artistic vision behind several major festivals and concert series. ‘Piano 2000’ and ‘Piano 2003’ ( Bridgewater Hall, Manchester) established her reputation as an astute programmer; and following the earlier ‘Fauré and the French Connection’ she was appointed Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Government. In 2008 she was appointed Artistic Director of the Manchester Chamber Concerts Society. She is Guest Artistic Director, 2010 and 2011, of the chamber festival, Incontri in Terra di Siena. Current and future plans include tours of the United States and Japan with Yo-Yo Ma, and a tour of the USA with the Assad Brothers, while her busy schedule takes her to a range of international flagship festivals including Este (Italy), Storioni (Holland), Vinterfest (Sweden), Oxford, Hardanger and Risør (both Norway) and Kharkov (Ukraine) as well as Salzburg.