Concerto Soloist, Recitalist, Chamber Musician

Concerto Soloist

Testimonials, Reviews, Repertoire & Media

"I first encountered pianist Tom Hicks as the soloist in the first Brahms concerto with the RNCM symphony orchestra in 2014. In rehearsals, he had so impressed their conductor, Mark Heron, that the latter contacted me to suggest the performance was likely to be something worth seeing. He was right! I too was impressed by a young pianist, not merely on top of the technical challenges of that work, but able to bring to it a musicality and deftness of touch which belied his years. I subsequently engaged him for Stockport Symphony Orchestra and over three seasons, concluding in 2018, Tom played all four Rachmaninov concertos and the Paganini Variations with us in five stunning concerts which were hugely appreciated by our audiences. Tom produces performances of the highest calibre played with warmth and sensitivity and with the technique and temperament to bring off the bravura passages with aplomb but without distracting histrionics. In addition to his obvious technical and musical gifts, Tom is also an engaging personality and, for a concert organiser, has been a delight to deal with.”  

David Lund (Program Manager, Stockport Symphony Orchestra)

"Tom Hicks is an excellent pianist. The depth and maturity in the interpretation of Brahms' First Piano Concerto was exceptional. I can highly recommend Tom."  

Michelle Castelletti (Artistic Director, Royal Northern College of Music)

“Tom launched his narrative in Brahms' Second Piano Concerto with an authority and passion that was almost startling, given his youthful formality. The horn lured the piano out into the rough seas, which the piano rode with brio and assurance, vaulting easily over the dense underpinnings of the orchestra. His calm composure and lack of musical score made it seem entirely natural that a young man of just 26 should spearhead such a formidable musical force. … The next three movements felt like a coming of age. Tom no longer as local boy wonder but fully mature concert professional: sometimes managing jaw-dropping acrobatics with throwaway poise, other times providing the depth and lustre that gilded the whole creation, the emotional focal point that made you want to say ‘Oh that’s what it’s all about’.”   

Julia Meredith,  ‘Guernsey’s Finest Take on the Big Beasts’, The Guernsey Press, 2019.

Above: Tom in rehearsal with the Amati Orchestra and conductor Leo Patsalides, St John's Smith Square, London

Repertoire & Selected Performances

Rachmaninoff Concertos

Tom has performed Rachmaninoff's complete works for piano and orchestra on two occasions. The first cycle was with the Guernsey Sinfonietta and Sebastian Grand (conductor) from 2011-2015. The second cycle was with Stockport Symphony Orchestra with Harish Shankar, Mark Heron, Sergej Bolkhovets and Ewa Strusinska (conductors) from 2016-2018.

Recitalist

Testimonials, Reviews, Performances & Media

"The Kensington & Chelsea Music Society (KCMS) was delighted to include in our last season a piano recital by Tom Hicks from Guernsey with a programme of the finest pieces. So exquisite was Tom's playing and so enthusiastic the response of our audience that we have invited him to return in our current season for a follow-up performance that will again show his profound talent as virtuoso player and interpreter"

Peter Thomas (Chairman, KCMS)

“That slightly dazed silence before the applause began in Beethoven's Sonata Opus 109 was witness to how far we had been transported. For someone in their twenties, the ability to interpret so intelligently the creation of a man tormented by his deafness and hence mortality, is rather magnificent.” 

Julia Meredith, ‘Tom Hicks and Friends’, The Guernsey Press, 2020.

“Tom immediately showed his musical credentials in “Island Spell” with the washes of sound and a magical sense of colour from hands that seemed only to hover above the keys…A transcendental technique allowed him to throw off the many technical challenges with ease and allow the folk idioms and rather pastoral atmosphere to sing out unimpeded. The beautiful long lines in the last Song of Springtides were sustained by lush harmonies that were never allowed to overpower the overall architectural shape…The Seasons by Tchaikovsky were played with the utmost clarity and a real sense of finger legato that allowed the nostalgic melodies and Gopak type dance rhythms to create just the relief from Ireland’s rather personal view of his beloved islands.”

Christopher Axworthy, Tom Hicks at St Martin in the Fields’, Music Commentary, 2019.

Selected Programming and Performances

Chamber Music

Testimonials,Repertoire & Media

"It has been an enormous pleasure for me to work with pianist, Tom Hicks, who must surely be one of the brightest prospects of his generation. He performs with great maturity and artistry, and shows a real depth of knowledge of the music."

 Roger Coull (Coull Quartet)

Repertoire