Harvey Davies

Harvey Davies studied the piano with Helen Davies and David Parkhouse then with Ryszard Bakst at the Royal Northern College of Music. He is well-known as a chamber musician and collaborative pianist and his work as a musician has taken him to four continents and throughout the UK.

With his wife, the ‘cellist Heather Bills, Harvey founded the Manchester-based chamber group The Pleyel Ensemble in 2011. Comprising some of the finest string and wind players in the UK and specialising in British chamber music and lesser-known Classical works thePleyels run a concert series in Didsbury and they were Making Music Featured Artists for 2019/20 for the second time in three years. The Pleyel Ensemble have recently completed a major project with the MPR label to record a four-CD set of the chamber music of the English composer Arnold Cooke. The recordings were released in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Most of the works recorded are World Première recordings.

As a Fellow in Historical Performance at the RNCM, Harvey gives lectures and coaches chamber music alongside his work as a staff pianist. Harvey was awarded a PhD in Performance from the RNCM/Manchester Metropolitan University in 2022 for his work on the varied chamber music of Arnold Cooke.

Harvey has collaborated with many eminent musicians including the Alberni, Benyounes, Callino and Carducci Quartets, Atar Arad, Alison Balsom, James Bowman, Rebecca Evans, James Gilchrist, Janet Hilton, Guy Johnston, Jennifer Pike and Elena Urioste and as a freelance player, Harvey has worked with all the orchestras in the North West including the Hallé, RLPO, Manchester Camerata, NCO and the contemporary music group Ensemble 10/10.

The Davies Duo, Harvey and his mother Helen, have worked together since 1990. They have performed and recorded extensively and commissioned many new works for piano duet from composers as diverse as Nicola Lefanu and Alun Hoddinott. Their disc, ‘Diversity’, features works written for them by Welsh composers and was received to critical acclaim.