Roger VignolesThe pianist Roger Vignoles is one of Britain’s most outstanding musicians. Originally inspired by the playing of Gerald Moore, he decided on leaving university to pursue a career as a piano accompanist, completing his essential training with the distinguished Viennese-born teacher Paul Hamburger. Since then, reviewers worldwide have consistently recognized his distinctive qualities as a player. Among his first partners was the great Swedish soprano Elisabeth Söderström, whom he accompanied regularly throughout the 1970s and 80s. During this period, he also developed particularly fruitful collaborations with Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Sir Thomas Allen and Sarah Walker in a wide repertoire of songs, from German Lieder and French mélodies to cabaret songs by Gershwin, Britten and others. In 1997, the Schubert year, he devised and directed the series ‘Landscape into Song’ at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. In 1998 he inaugurated the Nagaoka Winter Festival in Japan. In 2001 he took part in the Schumann Festival at the South Bank in London.