Our Accompanist: Simon Howat

Simon Howat Simon was appointed as our accompanist in summer 2022. He grew up in Buckinghamshire and studied Music at Cambridge University, followed by post-graduate Piano Accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, with Professors Nina Sereda and Paul Hamburger.

Over the last thirty years, he has been in demand as an accompanist, music examiner for ABSRM, and peripatetic piano instructor. On the concert platform, Simon has appeared as a two-piano/piano-duet pianist, an accompanist for instrumental/vocal recitals, and a concerto pianist performing with several regional orchestras. Further afield, he has played at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Grimeborn Festival, accompanying chamber opera. In 2022, he added organ continuo playing to his portfolio and performed Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Oxford Bach Soloists.

As the pianist for a number of choirs, including the Wooburn Singers in Beaconsfield, Simon has accompanied a large part of the choral canon over the years, with particular highlights being: Porgy and Bess, Verdi’s Requiem, Brahms’ German Requiem and Liebesieder Waltzes, Elijah, Carmina Burana, The Rio Grande, Belshazzar’s Feast, Symphony of Psalms, The Bells, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, Dyson’s Nebuchadnezzar and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle; also Arion and the Dolphin and The Passing of the Year by Jonathan Dove.