American pianist Clinton Cormany has distinguished himself as an accompanist to many singers and instrumentalists in recitals all over the United States and Europe. His principal teachers have been Leonard Hokanson at the Indiana University School of Music and Malcolm Martineau at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He has been invited to participate in several festivals and master-classes, including the Art-Song Festival at the Cleveland Institute, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh. Through these forums he has received training from John Perry, Elly Ameling, Barbara Bonney, Warren Jones, and Roger Vignoles.

Clinton has garnered several honours and awards for his work both in America and London. Recognition of his solo piano work has included the Kent Rogers Grant for International Music Travel at the Indiana University, Second Prize at the 1992 WTNA-Wurlitzer Collegiate Artists Competition, First Prize at the 1994 Indianapolis Matinèes Musicales Competition, and a scholarship from music publishing firm Theodore Presser.

Among the accolades for his accompaniment have been the First Prize for Pianists at the 1999 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition and the 2002 Vivian Langrish Prize for Accompanists. He was selected for sponsorship in 2000 by the Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust, and accepted also that year to the Young Songmakers’ Programme with Graham Johnson. While pursuing a postgraduate course at the Royal Academy of Music he won several of its accompaniment and chamber-music prizes, including the Elena Gerhardt Lieder Prize and the Wigmore Award Accompanist’s Prize. He was graduated from the Academy in 2001 with the prestigious DipRAM, and the following year he was appointed Meaker Fellow there. In 2006 he will finish his doctorate studies at the Indiana University.

Along with regular collaborative work Clinton’s performances have included several large-scale projects involving many of his musical peers: in recent years he has organised performances of the complete song-cycles of Schumann, the entire Spanisches Liederbuch of Hugo Wolf and the complete songs of Ravel. Last year he presented a varied programme from the body of American song in two evenings. With recital partners he has appeared at London venues such as St John’s Smith Square, Fairfield Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St Bride’s Fleet Street, and the Wigmore Hall. In 2006 he will release his first CD with Spanish clarinettist Cristo Barrios (Divine Art Records) and he will also perform in the Wigmore Hall.