CHRISTINE ZERAFA
BIOGRAPHY
Maltese pianist Christine Zerafa has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in various concert series and festivals in Europe and the United States. Performances have taken her to major world-renowned venues and festivals including the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St John's Smith Square, Cadogan Hall, St Martin in the Fields and St James Piccadilly, amongst others. She has performed in Oxford Lieder Festival and appeared on BBC Radio 3 as well as BBC television.
Christine has been recipient of various awards and most recently she has been made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of her contribution to the music profession. Other notable prizes include first prize in the National Bice Mizzi Competition, the Royal Northern College of Music Clifton Helliwell Memorial Prize, the Royal Academy of Music Scott Huxley prize for accompaniment and the Schumann Lieder pianist prize. She was also awarded the Eric Brough Memorial Award and the John B McEwen Prize for good work and achievement during her studies at the Royal Academy of Music. She is a Park Lane Group Artist and she was also an award winner on the Tunnell Trust Artist Scheme.
Christine enjoys a very busy performance schedule as a soloist, chamber musician, song accompanist and orchestral pianist. Besides performing, Christine also enjoys coaching singers and instrumentalists and she has frequently been invited as a visiting staff pianist at the Royal College of Music, and the Royal Academy of Music, where she worked with students from woodwind, vocal and string faculties in master classes, competitions, exam recitals and entrance auditions. Notably, she has accompanied public master classes led by Maxim Vengerov, Miriam Gauci, Juliana Koch (LSO principal oboe), Michael Hasel (Berlin Philharmonic principal flute), Simon Diricq, and she has accompanied instrumental/vocal lessons for students in the classes of Sarah Walker, Mark Wildman, Lillian Watson, Natalie Clein, György Pauk, Timothy Lines, and Kyle Horch, amongst many others. She has accompanied her duo partners in important competitions, which performances led to various awards, including the Tillet Trust award, ROSL Gold Medal award, Philip and Dorothy Green Making Music Award, Tunbridge Wells International Competition, Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT), and BBC Young Musician.
Christine gained a Master of Music in solo performance from the Royal Northern College of Music where she studied with Norma Fisher and Paul Janes, after which she moved on to study with Andrea Lucchesini at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Florence. Having a great passion for collaboration with singers and instrumentalists, she then read for a Master of Music degree in piano accompaniment, which she completed with distinction at the Royal Academy of Music under the tuition of Michael Dussek, Malcolm Martineau and Ian Brown. She recently obtained a PhD at the Academy, which focused on the role of the pianist in the art of song and duo chamber music.
Christine is an ABRSM examiner and a visiting lecturer at the University of Malta. She has delivered lectures at the Royal Academy of Music and the University for the Arts in Graz, and has presented her research in international conferences, most notably the European Platform for Artistic Research in Music.