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Sooyeon Baik
Sooyeon Baik is a South Korean pianist based in London, recognized for her versatility
across instrumental chamber music and song repertoire. She performs widely
throughout the UK, Europe, North America, and Korea, appearing at major venues
including Wigmore Hall, the Barbican, Salle Cortot, and Ehrbar Saal.
As a song pianist, she has worked with distinguished singers including Roderick
Williams, Jennifer France, and Morgan Pearse—experiences that have shaped her
sensitivity and ensemble awareness. An active chamber musician, she has collaborated
with leading artists such as oboist Alison Teale and cellist Chris Murray. She was also
invited to perform in the BBC Total Immersion series, where her performance was
broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
She has served as a collaborative pianist for major competitions, including the Guildhall
Gold Medal, the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, and the Eastbourne International Singing
Competition. Her awards include prizes at the Wales International Piano Festival, the
Jubilee Accompaniment Prize, and the Franz-Schubert-Institut Lieder Prize.
Sooyeon holds an Artist Diploma with Distinction from the Guildhall School of Music &
Drama and degrees from the University of Cincinnati (USA). She is currently a Junior
Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music and a staff pianist at the Guildhall School.
Ilan Kurtser
Pianist Ilan Kurtser is a Britten-Pears Young Artist, Samling Artist and Leeds Lieder Young Artist. He won numerous prizes in competitions in the UK and abroad, including First Prize at the Copenhagen International Lied Duo Competition, Kathleen Ferrier Awards Accompanist Prize and Bampton Classical Opera Competition Accompanist Prize. Ilan was a finalist at the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition 2024 together with baritone Jonathan Eyers.
Ilan was a Bicentenary Scholar at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied Piano Accompaniment with Michael Dussek, James Baillieu and Malcolm Martineau. As part of his Bicentenary Scholarship, he is recording his debut CD of the complete Goethe-Lieder by Hugo Wolf.
Concert highlights have included recitals with Gweneth Ann Rand and Stephen Whitford at the Aldeburgh Festival, recital violist Paul Silverthorne in London and Museo del Violino in Cremona, Italy, recital with mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston in Leeds Lieder Festival, recital with Elizabeth Watts in Jersey, and performances at Wigmore Hall, International Lied Festival Zeist, Sage Gateshead, Leeds Victoria Hall and Jerusalem Music Centre.
Ilan was a Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music where he curated over 20 concerts for the Academy Song Circle and Academy Voices concert series, teaching and coaching singers and pianists. Ilan is currently a répétiteur for the Royal Academy Opera.
Francesca Lauri
Francesca Lauri is sought after as a collaborative pianist specialising in the vocal repertoire of song and opera. She won the Help Musicians Accompanist’s prize at the 2025 Kathleen Ferrier Awards and previously the collaborative piano prizes at the 2024 Royal Over-Seas League Competition, John Kerr Awards, Ashburnham English Song Awards, the AESS Dorothy Richardson English Song Prize, Eastbourne Singing Competition and the Somerset Song Prize.
As a Young Artist, Francesca has participated in programmes including Leeds Lieder, Shipston Song, Oxford Song and the Wigmore French Song Exchange. She is a Samling Young Artist and works regularly with the Samling institute, including at the Academy and performing in their Wigmore Showcase last November. She is passionate about French Melodie and was the Viola Tunnard Scholar during her time as a Britten Pears Young Artist where she worked closely with Susan Manoff, Veronique Gens and Audrey Hyland on French Song repertoire. Francesca was recently awarded the ‘Viola Tunnard Young Artist Award’ for her outstanding performance and contribution as a BPYAP emerging artist.
As well as her work in song, Francesca has repetiteured for productions of Albert Herring, Don Pasquale, La Boheme, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Cenerentola, La Traviata and more with opera companies such as Hurn Court and St Paul’s Opera. She has also enjoyed working as an assistant conductor for Gothic Opera and performed in their production of ‘Der Vampyr’ in the Grimeborn Festival.
Francesca graduated in 2024 with distinction from her postgraduate studies in Collaborative Piano at the Royal College of Music where she was the recipient of the Ian Evans Lombe Scholarship, studying with Simon Lepper, Kathron Sturrock and Roger Vignoles. She was supported generously by the Countess of Munster Trust and won the pianist prizes in the Lieder Prize, the Lies Askonas and the Joan Chissell Schumann Competition. In 2022, she graduated from Trinity Laban under the tutelage of Sergio de Simone, with First-Class Honours, receiving the TCL Silver Medal for piano studies and the David Gosling Prize for Piano Accompaniment. She is the current Lord and Lady Lurgan collaborative piano fellow for the RCM vocal department.
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