Harvey Davies was born in 1964 and began playing the piano before he was three. He was a chorister at New College, Oxford, then went with a top Music Scholarship to Marlborough College. Harvey studied the piano with Helen Davies and David Parkhouse before going to Ryszard Bakst at the Royal Northern College of Music from 1983 to 1987. In 1987, Harvey won the title of Young Musician of the Year at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and in 1990 gave his South Bank debut during the Park Lane Group’s prestigious contemporary music series. Harvey was on the Live Music Now! scheme for many years, work that has taken him to venues of all descriptions throughout the UK. Harvey is now well established as a fine chamber musician and accompanist. He has played regularly on national radio and television channels including BBC Radio 3 and 4, BBC 1 and 2, Independent Television and S4C.

At Bangor University, Harvey has been the School of Music’s accompanist for more than fifteen years, covering the vast majority of the internal work as required through the year. He has also taught the piano there for many years, and given modules in accompaniment, chamber music and keyboard skills.

Helen and Harvey Davies are a successful mother-and-son piano duet team. They are much in demand as recitalists and have a special interest in contemporary music for four hands on one piano. The duo regularly commission new works and have had music written for them by many composers including Jeffrey Lewis, Bill Connor and John Metcalf. Recently they have premiered new pieces by Nicola Lefanu, Brian Hughes, Pwyll ap Sion and most recently the new Sonata written for them by Alun Hoddinott in the year of his 75th birthday. Helen and Harvey have made three CD’s, the duet works of Richard Stoker, a collection of 20th C British music and a disc of mainly Romantic music, all for the ASC label.

Harvey is the pianist in Ensemble Cymru, a chamber group with a flexible line-up. The Ensemble is resident at Bangor University and has a busy year ahead having won major sponsorship from Barclays Bank, amongst others. Recent premieres given have included works by Jeffrey Lewis, Andrew Lewis. The Ensemble’s clarinettist, Peryn Clement-Evans has recorded a CD of Welsh works with Harvey for the Cyfoes label, and it has been received to critical acclaim:                     

“virtuoso and exuberant playing…”

“these works are superbly performed and well chosen..”

Harvey is an official accompanist at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the NationalEisteddfod of Wales, resident pianist at the Two Moors Festival, and is an Associated Board examiner. As of September 2005, Harvey has been appointed as a Staff Pianist at the Royal NorthernCollege of Music in Manchester.

Harvey has played abroad many times, touring the Middle East three times with the finalists of the BBC Young Musician competition. He has twice been a judge in the Young Musician of the Gulf competition in Bahrain and has toured Tunisia with trumpeter Alison Balsom.

Harvey has an exciting duo with the euphonium player, David Childs playing recently in the Wigmore Hall, the Purcell Room and live on Radio 3. David and Harvey continue to give many concerts throughout the UK, and are currently working on some recording projects.

“The powerful symphonic structure of Kenneth Leighton’s Sonata for Four Hands was masterfully revealed in this authoritative performance”                

Music Wales

“(The Davies Duo)…a fine reputation for intelligent, sensitive, technically assured and vital performances of a wide range of 20th century repertoire…”     

British Music Society News. Dec. 1999