A player who would rather hold a phrase than hurry it.

James Ellery studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the Chappell Gold Medal, and later completed a doctorate at the Royal Northern College of Music on the piano music of Ravel and the problem of playing it quietly enough.

He has appeared as a recitalist and concerto soloist across the UK and Europe — at Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, St George’s Bristol and the Concertgebouw’s recital hall — and as a concerto soloist with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Britten Sinfonia. Recent seasons have included the late Schubert sonatas performed as a cycle and a continuing series of Ravel programmes.

Alongside the concert work he records slowly and deliberately, releasing pieces as they are finished rather than as complete sets, and commissions new music for the instrument from composers at the start of their careers.