Surrey-born Imogen Hancock began playing the trumpet at the age of seven, following an early fascination with the instrument, and went on to accept a full scholarship place at the Royal Academy of Music, graduating with First Class Honours in 2015.
During her four years at the Academy, Imogen participated in master classes with leading soloists Håkan Hardenberger, Reinhold Friedrich and Philip Smith and was the winner of the Academy’s Drummond Sharp Brass Prize for Contemporary Music. Imogen organised the London premiere performance of Stephen Dodgson’s Trumpet Concerto, written for her in 2011, and continues to be an advocate of new music. Imogen is particularly looking forward to performing the world premiere of a new work by Sally Beamish in 2016, commissioned for her by the Park Lane Group.
In demand as a soloist, Imogen has been awarded Park Lane Group Artist for the 2015-16 season and performs as an orchestral musician around London and the UK. Upcoming engagements include recitals in London with her duo partner pianist Jennifer Hughes, and a tour around the UK and Europe with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Imogen was one of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Julius Isserlis Scholars for 2015-16 and will be continuing her studies with regular lessons abroad over the next two years.
What do you love about classical music?
Classical music connects people – it connects composers to performers to audiences and creates a wonderful (however small!) world. I love the overwhelming emotions it evokes in people and how you can hear a hundred different versions of the same piece and still find something new each time. As the performer, you always have the opportunity to make a piece your own.
Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us
My absolute favourite food is Yorkshire pudding – so much so that I’ve had a giant Yorkshire pudding with a candle stuck in it as a birthday cake in the past and I will regularly eat up to ten of them with any roast dinner!
What is your most embarrassing or amusing musical moment?
A few years ago I played the cornet in a brass band for the very first time. They were one player short for a national competition and so I agreed to help out. I had one short rehearsal with them the week before and felt comfortable enough with the part. We travelled to Manchester for the competition and all was going smoothly until ten minutes before we were due to play. That was when they realised that they had forgotten to tell me that the cornet players had all memorised their parts and there was a choreographed routine that I needed to learn… I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry!