Pianist and Arranger
Pianist and Arranger
Bernard Sumner
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Pianist and Arranger
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After graduating from the Royal Academy of Music, London, joined the BBC as Staff Accompanist. In time his skills as an arranger were much exploited by the Scottish Radio Orchestra, whom he also frequently conducted. As an official BBC concerto soloist he played with such illustrious conductors as, Sir Adrian Boult, Sir Colin Davis and Sir Alexander Gibson. He had his own TV show with John Georgiadis as his guest, and recorded an album of piano classics and jazz, "Between the Cracks" for EMI in England in 1978.
Bernard Sumner relocated to Thailand in 1984, and became deeply involved with the musical scene, giving recitals, teaching and working with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra as pianist and arranger. In 1995 he appeared as solo pianist in 2 of their concerts, Bach to the Beatles and a special concert, which was an attempt to combine the symphony orchestra with traditional Thai instruments. In this concert he played his Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra on "The Waves" by HM King Rama the 7th, and after the concert was presented to HRH Princess Galyani, the elder sister of HM the King. In the same year the Bangkok Symphony went on a goodwill mission to Cambodia, the second half of the concert consisting of songs written by the Kings of the 2 countries, arranged by Bernard Sumner. On the 30th of April 1996, the BSO was joined by 75 of the world's finest orchestral musicians to form the World Philharmonic who gave a concert in honour of HM the King's 50th year on the throne, in the presence of HM the Queen. Bernard Sumner wrote an overture around "The Soul of the Nation" by Lady Sasima Srivikorn and afterwards he was presented to HM the Queen. Chitralada School invited him to arrange and record all of His Majesty's songs in 1996 and in the same year the BSO produced a CD of concert arrangements of His Majesty's songs.
In 1998, he gave recitals with Thai violinist, and American/Taiwanese cellist, and a two piano recital with American pianist, Bennett Lerner. In the same year, Mr. Sumner arranged many songs, mainly from recent Disney cartoons and produced the piano reduction of Richard Harvey's Concerto Antico for Guitar and Orchestra.
Bernard Sumner lives in Chiangmai, Thailand, and is particularly interested in working on piano reductions, having suffered in his BBC days from hopeless piano parts of concertos at auditions for BBCSSO.
