Thursday Lunchtime Concert – pianist Sophia Lim

Sophia Lim is a Malaysian pianist based in London. She had been under the tutelage of British pianist Danny Driver at the Royal College of Music. Sophia studied with her mentor, Krzysztof Slomiak, in her hometown of Sabah, before continuing her education in London. At the age of 10, she began learning the erhu, which enriched her musical insight and versatility through the influence of various musical cultures.

She regularly performs in Sabah, and notably her performance of the Youth Piano Concerto by Liu Shi Kun in 2017 received high recognition. She has won prizes at several competitions in Malaysia, including Grand Champion at the 2016 Borneo Performing Arts Festival, Gold Medal at the 2019 Kota Kinabalu Music Festival, and 1st prize at the Young Person’s Piano Competition in 2014, where she was the youngest to compete in the Open Category. Sophia has also performed the premiere of On Manhattan Avenue by composer Ben Munro in the Electronic Music Concert at the RCM in 2022 and collaborated on the piece Urban Luminescence for the erhu and tongue drum.

Recent highlights include her chamber performances in FestivAll 2023: ‘From Takemitsu to Miku’, celebrating the music of Japanese composers. She also performed Jō Kondō’s Standing for piano, marimba, and flute in in February 2023, and performing Rachmaninoff’s 2 pieces for 6 hands at the 2023 Keyboard Festival at the Royal College of Music. She had also premiered pieces by RCM Composers, such as Metamorphosis by John Griffith II, and Stratioses by Nien Chin Chai. Sophia performed both solo and chamber music at venues including the Austrian Cultural Forum, St Mary Abbots Church, St Michael’s Highgate, and St Michael’s Sittingbourne.

Programme:

Leoš Janáček – In the Mists (15’)

Franz Schubert – Sonata in A major D.664 (20‘)

Lili Boulanger – 3 Morceaux pour piano (7’)

1. D’un vieux Jardin
2. D’un Jardin clair
3. Cortège

Claude Debussy – Pour le piano (13’)

1. Prélude
2. Sarabande
3. Toccata