Michael Bell is a distinguished pianist, and a widely respected pedagogue. Having studied at the Royal Northern College of Music with Derryck Wyndham and Sulamita Aronovsky, he was awarded a Chopin Fellowship from the Polish Government, enabling him to move to the State Academy in Warsaw. Subsequent national and international prizes led to numerous live concert performances and broadcasts on radio and TV throughout Europe, Australia and Africa.
More recent highlights have included concerts at London's Southbank Centre, in Bulgaria with the Sofia Philharmonic, and return invitations to the Kharkiv Assemblies Festival in Ukraine.
His solo repertoire is diverse and extensive, with recordings of solo works by Granados, Haydn, Grieg, Janacek, Seabourne, and of 20th Century English trios. Partnering clarinettist Victoria Samek, his disc of the complete duo works by Richard Rodney Bennett received much critical acclaim, as did his recording of Seabourne’s Steps Volume 3: Arabesques.
Michael Bell is also in demand as an acknowledged Lieder accompanist and is a member of the Chamber Players of London. A versatile and exciting musician, he has over thirty concertos in his repertoire, and has performed the complete Beethoven cycle. He has given premières of works dedicated to him by Peter Seabourne and Miroslav Spasov.
His playing is characterised by a vast palette of pianistic colour, great attention to articulation, and always the communication of an intensely personal vision.