Camden Reeves: Blue Sounds Tom Hicks

• Camden Reeves: Tangle-Beat Blues:
• 1 Reeves: Tangle-Beat Blues 12:44
• Blue Sounds for Piano:
• 2 Reeves: Blue Sounds for Piano 11:08
• 9 Preludes:
• 3 Reeves: 9 Preludes: No. 1, Allegro molto 01:34
• 4 Reeves: 9 Preludes: No. 2, Grave 01:05
• 5 Reeves: 9 Preludes: No. 3, Adagio molto rubato 01:55
• 6 Reeves: 9 Preludes: No. 4, Allegro scherzando 02:35
• 7 Reeves: 9 Preludes: No. 5, Andante con moto 01:52
• 8 Reeves: 9 Preludes: No. 6, Prestissimo 02:34
• 9 Reeves: 9 Preludes: No. 7, Mesto 01:08
• 10 Reeves: 9 Preludes: No. 8, Allegro ritmico 04:33
• 11 Reeves: 9 Preludes: No. 9, Tempo di ciaccona 01:39
• Total Runtime 42:47

Info for Camden Reeves: Blue Sounds

Blue Sounds is a set of meditations on a color - from its abstractness as an electromagnetic wave to Blues as a scale, a genre and a harmonic structure. All three works were written for Tom Hicks and mark a growth in fluency and an experimental approach to the sonority of the piano. Camden Reeves has written for several instrumental groupings but the piano has been a vital part of his life since the age of 5. Included amongst his many activities, he was appointed Composition Fellow with the Hallé orchestra at the age of 22 and is currently Head of Music and Senior Lecturer in Composition at the University of Manchester. Hailed as an artist of ‘magnificent pianism’, Guernsey-born pianist Tom Hicks has been praised for his ‘gorgeously creative playing’ that ‘transports the listener to another place and time’. Hicks is a gold medalist in numerous national and international competitions and holds degrees and awards from The University of Manchester, The Royal Northern College of Music, Yale University and Northwestern University, where he now lectures. His first disc featuring John Ireland’s Sarnia, ‘Tom Hicks: Ireland and Tchaikovsky’ has been described as ‘brilliantly evocative’ by Colin Clarke in International Piano, and ‘gorgeously creative’ by Scott Noriega in Fanfare. This new album follows his March 2022 album centered around the Liszt and Ireland piano sonatas and works by Clarke, Coleridge-Taylor and Stanford.

Guernsey-born pianist Tom Hicks has been hailed as ‘an artist of magnificent pianism’; he has established himself as a brilliant soloist, has won multiple awards and is also very sought after for accompaniment and chamber recitals in the UK and USA and around Europe. This will be his first album for Metier.

Meticulous in detail, dramatic in structure and with a touch of the bizarre, the music of Camden Reeves ranges from chamber, to vocal, to orchestral. His name has also become particularly associated with the piano.

Reeves was born in Oxford in 1974. At the age of four he began learning music with his grandfather, a Jazz musician. Reeves read music at the University of Exeter, studying composition with Philip Grange, and at the age of just 22 was appointed Composer Fellow with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. Further Composition studies followed with Roger Marsh and David Blake at the University of York. In 2000-2001, Reeves was awarded a CIMO Scholarship to study with Paavo Heininen on a CIMO Fellowship at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and he still cites his engagement with the music of Sibelius during this period as one of the most important influences underlying the organic and dramatic structure of his music.

Tom Hicks, piano

Tom Hicks
a pianist originally from Guernsey, has been recognised for his distinguished artistry and technical command. Described as possessing “magnificent pianism” and an “engaging personality,” his performances have been noted for their “brilliantly evocative” interpretations (International Piano) and “gorgeously creative playing” (Fanfare). A Yamaha Artist, Hicks maintains an extensive and varied repertoire, performing as recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician in major venues across Europe and the United States. These include appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, and numerous other respected concert halls.

Hicks has performed as concerto soloist on over 60 occasions, which most notably includes several cycles of Rachmaninoff’s complete works for solo piano and orchestra and several performances of the two Brahms concerti. He has earned acclaim in these and other performances of works by composers including Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann for “depth and maturity” as well as “the technique and temperament to bring off the bravura passages with aplomb”.

His discography features a similarly wide-ranging repertoire. In 2019, Hicks released a recording featuring works by John Ireland and Tchaikovsky, supported by the John Ireland Charitable Trust. This recording received enthusiastic reviews in publications such as International Piano, Fanfare, Piano Journal, and Classical Music Daily. In 2022, he issued two further albums. The first, Liszt and Ireland Piano Sonatas (Divine Art), presents the major sonatas of these composers alongside works by Charles Stanford, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Rebecca Clarke. This recording was noted for its “consistent excellence” and its “commanding performance, balancing the dramatic with the intimate” (Musical Opinion, MusicWeb International). It was included in the American Record Guide Best of 2022 Critics’ Choice. The second, Blue Sounds (Métier), follows Hicks’ premieres of works by Camden Reeves, including Tangle-Beat Blues (2014), Nine Preludes (2016), and Blue Sounds (2019). His interpretation on this recording was commended for its “fluidity, authority, and musicality” (Textura). Hicks also appears on Augusta Read Thomas’ Grammy-nominated recording released by Nimbus Records.

His 2025 Divine Art release, Chopin: The Complete Nocturnes, has been hailed for its fresh, authentic interpretations that honor Chopin’s creative process. Jerry Dubins praises the tone he “draws from his piano...the sensitivity of his phrasing, and the subtleties of his voice-leading” while James Harrington writes that he “cannot imagine any other performances of these masterpieces that capture their essence any better than Hicks” (Fanfare).

In addition to his solo work, Hicks is an experienced chamber musician and accompanist. He has collaborated with ensembles including the Coull Quartet in performances of the piano quintets of Schumann, Brahms, and Dvořák, and performed Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for two pianos with Eylam Keshet. His chamber music training includes coaching from Boris Berman, Hung-Kuan Chen, Leonard Elschenbroich, Mark Steinberg, and Ralph Kirshbaum.

Hicks received his early musical training with Mervyn Grand in Guernsey before studying with Murray McLachlan at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, with whom he continued at the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Manchester. During this period, he was awarded the Royal Northern College of Music Gold Medal, the Peter Frankl Piano Prize, the Keith Elcombe Prize for Best Overall Performance, three Proctor-Gregg Performance Prizes, and the University of Manchester Faculty of Humanities Outstanding Academic Achievement Award. Hicks subsequently completed graduate studies in the United States, studying with Boris Berman at the Yale School of Music and with James Giles at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, where he earned a Doctorate in Musical Arts in 2021. His studies were supported by awards including a Charles R. Miller Scholarship and Frances G. Wickes Fellowship at Yale, and an Eckstein Scholarship and Fellowship at Northwestern. He has been successful in various competitions, receiving gold medals at the Wales International Piano Competition, the EPTA UK Piano Competition, and the Croydon Concerto Competition.

In 2019, Hicks founded the Fanny Davies International Piano Series in Guernsey, where he serves as Artistic Director. The series has brought internationally renowned artists, such as Joanna MacGregor, Leon McCawley, Noriko Ogawa, and Alexander Panfilov, to Guernsey for concerts and masterclasses.

As an educator, Hicks has taught piano at Yale University, Northwestern University, and Whitman College. He currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Piano, Director of the Piano Area, and Artistic Director of the International Piano Series at the College of Charleston.

Booklet for Camden Reeves: Blue Sounds