Gary Beecher
We are delighted to announce that the recipient of the 2026 RPS Gerald Moore Award for outstanding piano accompanists is Gary Beecher.
You can discover more about Gary here, through his own words, and his biography. He receives a prize of £5,000 to put towards his artistic and vocational development. We particularly invite festival and venue programmers to follow Gary's progress, and please be in touch with us if you would like to connect with him.
IN HIS OWN WORDS
'To receive the RPS Gerald Moore Award is a deeply personal honour for me. Gerald Moore has always been a role model of mine, not only through his vast and important legacy of recordings but as someone who championed the importance of the pianist in song. To receive an award bearing his name is a huge privilege. Given how much I have learnt from and admired Graham Johnson’s work, it feels particularly special for me to receive it with him as Chairman.
I am an Irish pianist specialising in song and what I love most about this art form is its ability to tell an entire story within a few minutes. I am fascinated by words, poetry and the relationship between singer and pianist but equally by the possibilities of programming and creating a journey for an audience.
My Wigmore Hall debut (with Irish mezzo-soprano Niamh O’Sullivan), When Birds Do Sing, was a perfect example of this. I loved taking a simple idea and finding songs that could be beautiful, moving, strange and funny. I love making audiences laugh and cry, feel comfortable one moment and challenged the next; introducing them to music they have never heard before, then rewarding them with something familiar. I’m a joker at heart, and love that song allows us to bring humour and lightness into the recital hall.
I am passionate about championing underplayed female and Irish composers, and bringing some elements of jazz and my own arrangements into my song programmes. I hope to continue exploring these connections through imaginative programming, recording and collaboration with singers. I am truly grateful to be part of this wonderful lineage of song accompanists.'
BIOGRAPHY
Gary Beecher is one of Ireland’s most sought-after pianists, with a varied career as a soloist, vocal accompanist, chamber musician, conductor and educator.
As a collaborative pianist, Gary has had several international competition successes with regular duo partner soprano Erika Baikoff (current BBC New Generation Artist), including 1st Prize at the International Nadia and Lili Boulanger Voice-Piano Competition (France), the Rudolf Jansen Pianist Prize at the 53rd International Vocal Competition LiedDuo (Netherlands), and 2nd Pianist Prize at the International Helmut Deutsch Song Competition (Austria).
Recent performance highlights include Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, Oxford International Song, Elgar Concert Hall in Birmingham, Dublin’s National Concert Hall and Cork Opera House. As a soloist, Gary won the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year and has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and RTÉ Concert Orchestra, as well as with Camerata Ireland and Sinfonia Smith Square (formerly Southbank Sinfonia) as an orchestral pianist. His performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, RTÉ Radio 1 and RTÉ Lyric FM.
Gary trained at MTU Cork School of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, winning the Guildhall Accompaniment, Schubert Institute and Paul Hamburger Prizes. He was a Samling, Britten Pears and Oxford Lieder Young Artist. He’s now on MTU Cork School of Music’s keyboard faculty and vocal/instrumental coaching staff. He is supported by Music Network’s Music Capital Scheme, funded by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.
The Gerald Moore Award is chosen by a panel of expert piano accompanists, invited to fulfil this role alongside the Award's founder Graham Johnson. We are very grateful to Sebastian Wybrew, Christopher Gould, and Susie Allan for their valued part in the 2026 panel.