Geoffrey Lancaster

Geoffrey Lancaster is a distinguished early keyboard specialist, and for 40 years has been at the forefront of the historically-informed performance practice movement. Performing on both modern and period pianos, he has appeared as a soloist and conductor with all of Australia’s major symphony orchestras and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and is artistic director and fortepianist with Ensemble of the Classic Era. He is a former artistic director of the Canberra International Music Festival, chief conductor and artistic director of La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, and was director of the Tasmanian Symphony Chamber Players for over a decade.

He has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Düsseldorf Symphony, Ensemble 415, Concerto Copenhagen, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. His 57 recordings for ABC Classics, Sony Classical, Tall Poppies and Supraphon have won many awards, including the Gramophone Award for Best Recording, Sounds Australian Award, Soundscapes Editor’s Choice and the ARIA Best Classical Recording. He performed the complete cycle of Haydn’s 52 keyboard sonatas for the opening of the Melbourne Recital Centre and has recorded the sonatas for the Tall Poppies label.

Dr Lancaster studied fortepiano at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and was the first Australian to win a major international keyboard competition, receiving First Prize at the 23rd Festival of Flanders International Fortepiano Competition, Bruges. An inspiring teacher and public intellectual, he has taught at leading conservatoria within Australia and Europe including Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music, the Conservatory of Amsterdam, Royal Academy of Music, Freiburg Hochschule and Basel Musik Akademie. He holds several emeritus and professorial appointments, having been a professor and head of department at a Group of Eight university, lecturer at the Australian National Academy of Music, associate professor of the Royal College of Music in London, and visiting professor at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

In 2006 Geoffrey Lancaster was named Australian of the Year for the Australian Capital Territory. He is a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators and Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. His other honours include the Australia Council’s Australian Artists ‘Keating’ Creative Fellowship, the HC Coombs Creative Arts Fellowship, Order of Arts and Letters, and the Order of Australia for services to music. He is an honorary research fellow at the University of Western Australia, and Professor of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University.