Beginning piano at the age of three and achieving the highest-level diploma from the Royal School of Music in London at age 12, international pianist and composer David Hicken’s tenure as a professional musician has taken him across the world, his work performed under the vaulted ceilings of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, within the storied walls of the Westminster and Canterbury Cathedrals in England and, just this past June, in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, where a choir of 80 singers brought his “Adoramus Te” to life. Now, to the delight of the Suncoast’s classical connoisseurs, Hicken and his prized piano have pulled stakes and landed in Sarasota, where Hicken plans to set up a “base of operations” to complete his latest record and continue perhaps his most ambitious work, The Art of Piano.

Raised on Bach, Rachmaninoff and their kin, Hicken retains a life-long love of classical music, encouraged by the rich history of the works, the composers and the instruments themselves. Not to disparage rock or popular music, he said, “but how much can you really do with a singer, bass player, drummer and guitar?” Hicken prefers the multitudinous possibilities of arranged ensembles and quartets, orchestras and choirs. “There’s so much you can do with sound when you look at it from the Classical sense,” he said.

With his first record contract at age 18, Hicken has in his time released a number of albums, but none quite as popular as 2013’s Carols of Christmas, seeing the pianist offer his own arrangement of 12 seasonal classics, providing his signature contemporary edge. One track in particular, “Carol of the Bells,” the Ukrainian folk tune-turned-American yuletide favorite, proved to be a hit in the United States, leading Hicken to plan a follow-up currently in the works. He hopes to complete the 12 tracks in Sarasota before this Christmas.

But while the carols will come quickly, Hicken said, his other project, The Art of Piano, is a bit more trying. Classically-based and with elements of a contemporary sensibility, The Art of Piano and the final 12 tracks comprising will be Hicken’s statement to the power and continued relevance of the instrument. Each a technically demanding composition for the solo piano, the record is currently half-complete, with “Incantation” standing out among the tracks currently available, its driving rhythm and rising sounds imparting a sense of storytelling usually reserved to the more overtly narrative arts. “The Art of Piano is saying, ‘Look, this is what you can really do with a piano if you want to write your own music,' ” said Hicken. “If young people would simply open their minds, they could discover a wonderful world.” 

Though surely piano-centric, Hicken says he’s toying with the idea of adding accompanying instrumentation to Art of Piano and perhaps drawing from local talent for percussion or string work.

“I see this as being a permanent home,” said Hicken as he waits for his piano to arrive at his Sarasota address. “I have a lot of plans for touring and performing—a lot of traveling—but I see this as being home base.”

David Hicken Official Website