Diana Ambache

The pianist Diana Ambache is known primarily as a chamber musician, and especially for her pioneering advocacy for the music of female composers. Born in 1948, she founded the Ambache Chamber Orchestra in 1984 in order to perform and record piano concertos by Mozart. A chance discovery of a piano concerto by Germaine Tailleferre shortly afterwards—and her realisation that she didn’t know any music written by a woman—prompted a mission to bring the work of neglected female composers to public attention at a time when this was highly unusual. Ambache’s recordings are primarily of chamber music, performed with close colleagues including the oboist Jeremy Polmear. Her promotion of women composers, mostly from the 20th century, has resulted in albums of chamber music by British composers (Seven Sisters, 2014), French composers (Liberté, Égalité, Sororité, 2015), and a programme of music by the Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz (2017). Her playing is characterised by its meticulous preparation and idiomatic stylishness, and her close sense of teamwork with fellow musicians.