Biography
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Iain Farrington has an exceptionally busy and diverse career as a pianist, organist, composer and arranger. He was born and bred in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London and at Cambridge University. He has made numerous recordings, and has broadcast on BBC Television, Classic FM and BBC Radio Three. Through his multi-faceted work as a musician, he aims to bring live music to as wide an audience as possible. Iain’s concert programmes often mix popular and jazz elements into the traditional Classical repertoire. His many chamber orchestral arrangements allow large-scale works to be presented on an affordable smaller scale, and his compositions range from virtuoso display pieces to small works for beginner instrumentalists.
As a solo pianist, accompanist, chamber musician and organist, Iain has performed at all the major UK venues, including the Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the BBC Proms, Bridgewater Hall Manchester, St David’s Hall Cardiff, and Birmingham Symphony Hall. Abroad he has given concerts in the USA, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Malaysia, Hong Kong and all across Europe. He has worked with many of the country's leading musicians, including Sir Bryn Terfel, Sir Paul McCartney and Lesley Garrett. |
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Iain played the piano at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics with Rowan Atkinson, the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle, broadcast to a global audience of around a billion viewers. He has recorded his arrangement for solo piano and orchestra of Elgar’s Concert Allegro with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, as well as his solo piano arrangement of Elgar's 2nd Symphony. The recording received an ‘Outstanding’ accolade in International Record Review as well as other critical acclaim. Iain’s solo piano performances of his jazz-inspired arrangements have been widely viewed on YouTube. He has performed on numerous occasions at the BBC Proms, with his first appearance in 2001 performing solo piano works and chamber music by Esa-Pekka Salonen. In 2020 he performed the solo keyboard part in a new piece by Richard Ayres with Aurora Orchestra, in a live TV broadcast. In 2016 he played the piano in a Proms performance of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle at the Naval College in Greenwich with the BBC Singers. In 2018 he performed in a rare Proms performance of Bernstein’s Conch Town for piano duet and percussion. Iain played Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 13 at Cadogan Hall in 2017 with the Beecham Orchestra. In 2018, Iain devised and performed a Mahler Piano Series at the 1901 Arts Club in London. It featured nearly all of Mahler’s symphonies in Iain’s solo piano arrangements, along with songs and piano music that influenced Mahler.
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As an ensemble pianist, Iain has performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, London Sinfonietta, Britten Sinfonia and City of London Sinfonia. In 2019 formed his own group, the Art Deco Trio, to perform his jazz-inspired arrangements for clarinet, saxophone and piano. They have recorded a CD of Iain's Gershwin song arrangements called Gershwinicity, and a recording of jazz-influenced arrangements of Classical favourites called Classical Changes. With the Counterpoise ensemble he worked with numerous singers and actors, including Sir John Tomlinson, Sir Willard White, Jacqui Dankworth and Eleanor Bron. Iain has also performed as an orchestral pianist and organist with the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra. As a session pianist, Iain has recorded numerous film and TV soundtracks for Hollywood, Disney and independent productions.
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As an organist, Iain has given solo recitals at Birmingham Town Hall, the Bridgewater Hall Manchester, in cathedrals across the UK and in Reykjavik Iceland. His solo performance in the Proms 2007 on the Royal Albert Hall organ was critically acclaimed, the Independent writing “he’s an authentic star, and deserves to have a Prom all to himself.” He has accompanied the BBC Singers in numerous concerts, recordings and broadcasts. His performance of Arvo Part’s Trivium was featured on the cover CD of BBC Music Magazine in 2016. In 2011, 2013 and 2017 he played organ works by Arnold Schoenberg and Eric Zeisl in Los Angeles for concerts presented by the Schoenberg family. Iain performed his Animal Parade in 2015 at the Royal Festival Hall for a family concert. Iain has accompanied choirs around the world, including concerts with the London Philharmonic Choir in Malaysia and Hong Kong. He was Organ Scholar at St John's College, Cambridge University, with whom he toured Japan, South Africa and Europe, and recorded English music for an award-winning series on the Naxos label. Previously he was Organ Scholar at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle where he played for numerous Royal occasions.
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Iain is a prolific composer and arranger, and his compositions have been performed internationally and recorded on numerous labels. Recent highlights include Extra Time for the Last Night of the Proms in 2024, composing and arranging the score for Planet Earth III Live in Concert, and On with the Show for the centenary of the BBC Singers. In 2023 he composed an organ piece Voices of the World for the Coronation of King Charles III, based on musical themes from various Commonwealth countries. In 2022 he composed/arranged A Party with Auntie, for the BBC centenary, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. His Jazz Cantata Then Sing We All for choir and ensemble was premiered to great acclaim, and subsequently performed by choirs across the UK and USA. Iain composed and arranged Earth Symphony for the BBC Proms, based on the soundtracks to recent BBC wildlife documentaries, and designed to accompany a film. He composed a piano duet Christmas Suite for Dame Sarah Connolly and Julius Drake. In 2021 he composed and recorded a ballet score for violin and piano, called Switchback. It is for Ballet Unleashed, featuring dancers from across the globe in various locations, choreographed by Cathy Marston.
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Iain's orchestral work Beethoveniana was composed for the BBC Proms in 2020, performed by all five BBC orchestras, with an accompanying film. Also in 2020 he composed an opera for English Touring Opera, Al Haytham's Light. It was filmed and recorded, and is designed for performance in schools, including participatory songs. Iain composed an organ piece for the inauguration of the new organ in St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, in October 2020. In 2019, Iain co-composed the soundtrack for the Horrible Histories Movie: Rotten Romans and conducted the recording with Aurora Orchestra. He has composed three 35 minute orchestral works combining poems by Craig Charles with a continuous full score, Scary Fairy: Red Riding Hood, Scary Fairy: Hansel and Gretel and Scary Fairy saves Christmas. These were first performed and broadcast on BBC Radio 2 ‘Friday Night is Music Night’ with the BBC Philharmonic, narrated by Craig Charles. Iain has also made chamber versions for 14 players, which have been performed in smaller venues. For the 2018 BBC Proms he composed an orchestral work Gershwinicity based on five Gershwin songs for five former BBC Young Musician of the Year winners. He also arranged extracts from Saint-Saens The Carnival of the Animals for symphony orchestra and four pianists for the same concert, with newly composed linking passages between the movements. Iain composed a short orchestral work A Shipshape Shindig for the BBC Proms in 2017, which was performed three times by the Royal Northern Sinfonia in special outdoor concerts in Hull. It has subsequently been performed by orchestras in France and Germany. An extended version of the piece called A Sea Shanty Shake-Up was composed for the BBC Concert Orchestra, who performed it on a concert tour of China in 2018. For the Wallace and Gromit Prom in 2012 he composed a jazz guide to the orchestra Wing It, and a Double Violin Concerto (Romance), both of which were a critical and popular success. In 2019 Iain composed and arranged all the music for Peppa Pig: My First Concert, a show that has toured all the major concert halls in the UK. Iain’s choral work The Burning Heavens was nominated for a British Composer Award in 2010, and his setting of the canticles, the ‘Blues’ Service, has received numerous performances in churches and cathedrals. His organ music has been widely performed, notably Fiesta! which has received hundreds of performances worldwide and several commercial recordings and broadcasts. Animal Parade has been performed and recorded frequently, including several occasions at St Paul’s Cathedral, London for the Lord Mayor’s Show. Iain has composed much music for amateur choirs, youth orchestras and beginner instrumentalists. His series of piano volumes Grade by Grade is published by Boosey & Hawkes and features many new compositions and arrangements for Grades 1 to 5.
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Iain has made hundreds of arrangements ranging from operas to piano pieces. These have been recorded, published and performed across the world. A list of performers is available here. Iain has made arrangements in many styles, including traditional African songs, Berlin cabaret, folk, klezmer, jazz and pop. He is the Arranger in Residence for the Aurora Orchestra who have performed and recorded his compositions and arrangements around the world. Notable musicians who have performed Iain's arrangements include Dame Sarah Connolly, Ian Bostridge, Wayne Marshall and Paul Daniel.
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He arranged orchestral works by Elgar and Holst for the 2023 Coronation of King Charles III. He co-wrote a musical called The Land of Might-Have-Been, based on the songs of Ivor Novello, including original songs and incidental music by Iain. For the 2021 BBC Last Night of the Proms he arranged the song 'I still call Australia home'. He also arranged a set of songs by Ivor Novello that Iain performed with Sir Bryn Terfel at the Barbican, London in 2020. Iain orchestrated and arranged all the music for live performances of the play version of A Clockwork Orange in 2017, involving the BBC Philharmonic and an ensemble of actors. He also arranged an orchestral medley of children’s TV themes for BBC Music Day in 2017 that was performed by the BBC Philharmonic. Iain has arranged numerous songs by the singer-songwriter Laufey for orchestra and voice, one of which was included on her Grammy award winning album Bewitched. The Palestine Youth Orchestra performed his symphonic orchestral arrangements of songs by the Rahbani brothers on their 2019 European tour and 2016 UK tour. He arranged a concert of folk music for Sam Lee and the City of London Sinfonia in 2017. Iain arranged all the songs for the Horrible Histories Proms in 2023 and 2011, and the BBC Concert Orchestra performed his orchestration of a song for the Comedy Prom in 2011. He has made many reductions of large orchestral works for chamber orchestras and ensembles, notably a 15 player version of Mahler’s 1st Symphony, which has received hundreds of performances worldwide. Other major reductions include chamber versions of operas by Dvorak, Janacek and Tippett, and large symphonic works by Bartok, Brahms, Debussy, Elgar, Gershwin, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Sibelius, Wagner and many more. His chamber ensemble arrangement of Brahms’s German Requiem is frequently performed and was recorded on the Hyperion label by Yale Schola Cantorum. Other notable reduced choral arrangements include Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius and Mendelssohn’s Lobegesang. Iain has made many solo piano arrangements for his own concerts, including nearly all of the Mahler symphonies, three Elgar symphonies, and jazz-inspired version of songs by Gershwin, Irving Berlin, ABBA and more. His organ arrangement of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 5 was performed at the 2011 Royal Wedding in Westminster Abbey. In 2017-19 Iain arranged the BBC Ten Pieces selections for school performances, making parts from beginner to advanced level for all instruments. These have been downloaded thousands of times and used in many children’s concerts.
Iain has also appeared as a conductor, in his own arrangements and compositions. In 2013 he conducted his own orchestral arrangements of African songs for the debut album of Pumeza Matshikiza on Decca Classics. The arrangements were widely broadcast on Classic FM and Pumeza has subsequently performed them worldwide. In 2011 Iain conducted his chamber version of Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen for the Ryedale Festival, as well as his own Animal Parade. He conducted his own chamber arrangement of Massenet’s Werther from the piano for English Touring Opera in 2015. Also in 2015 he conducted the BBC Philharmonic in his orchestration of the music for the TV show Teletubbies. Iain was Assistant Conductor to Mark Elder with the Hallé Orchestra in March 2011.
Iain was the General Editor of the Elgar Complete Edition from 2017 to 2024, and edited numerous volumes of Elgar's music. He runs his own publishing house Aria Editions which sells his compositions and arrangements to musicians around the world.
Iain has also appeared as a conductor, in his own arrangements and compositions. In 2013 he conducted his own orchestral arrangements of African songs for the debut album of Pumeza Matshikiza on Decca Classics. The arrangements were widely broadcast on Classic FM and Pumeza has subsequently performed them worldwide. In 2011 Iain conducted his chamber version of Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen for the Ryedale Festival, as well as his own Animal Parade. He conducted his own chamber arrangement of Massenet’s Werther from the piano for English Touring Opera in 2015. Also in 2015 he conducted the BBC Philharmonic in his orchestration of the music for the TV show Teletubbies. Iain was Assistant Conductor to Mark Elder with the Hallé Orchestra in March 2011.
Iain was the General Editor of the Elgar Complete Edition from 2017 to 2024, and edited numerous volumes of Elgar's music. He runs his own publishing house Aria Editions which sells his compositions and arrangements to musicians around the world.
All photos by Nick Rutter