Biography
Job Title: Senior Lecturer
Courses Taught: BA (Hons) Music (Classical), MA Music
Specialisms: Classical Piano, Chamber Music, Education and Outreach.
Acclaimed pianist Eleanor Hodgkinson divides her time between performing, teaching and writing. A versatile chamber musician, Eleanor has performed and recorded with Mid-Wales Opera, Southern Sinfonia and Orchestra of the Swan and collaborated with artists such as Nick Stringfellow, Lisa Nelsen and Simon Debruslais.
Solo recitals have taken her throughout the UK and abroad and in 2020 Volume 1 of the Complete Solo Piano Works of Nino Rota was released on the Naxos Grand Piano label.
As a writer Eleanor has devised many education projects and in 2014 she founded BabyGigs, a Midlands based C.I.C. which presents high-quality interactive concerts and workshops for 0 to 8 year olds. They have performed their original musical story shows at festivals throughout the UK and work in partnership with Leicestershire organisations to deliver community music sessions.
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 piano 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.
In great demand as a teacher, Eleanor is a Senior Lecturer in Piano at Leeds Conservatoire, and Visiting Tutor in Piano at Royal Holloway, University of London. She holds the position of Head of Keyboard at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music where her students have included the winner of the 2020 BBC Young Musician of the Year Keyboard Final. Eleanor regularly gives talks and master classes at schools and universities and is also a trainer and examiner for the ABRSM.
