Australian pianist and composer Sophie Hutchings’ love affair with the piano began in a rather concealed manner. As a child she would secret herself away with only the family piano for company – quietly developing her ruminative, dreamy style which would later become her trademark. Although initially reserved about her music and the notion of live performance, it wasn’t until releasing her debut album Becalmed that Sophie was nudged into the public arena.
She picked up her first ARIA Award, the most prestigious music award in Australia, in 2024. Twice nominated for the Australian Music Prize, she also won The National Live Music Awards’ top five live instrumentalists of the year. Hutchings has received glowing praise from critics such as MOJO, The Guardian, Clash and Wonderland, and has released eight highly acclaimed albums. including ‘Echoes in the Valley’ reaching the impressive milestone of becoming the #1 classical album in the UK in 2021. More recently, she completed a European tour in support of her latest album, ‘A World Outside.’ Sophie Hutchings continues her impressive career.
Her eighth studio album ‘A World Outside’ is a work of spacious, hypnotic beauty, a musical travelogue inspired by a road trip through Australia’s mighty Northern Territory, beginning in tropical Darwin and going deep into the arid Red Heart.
Rich with emotion and feeling, texture and contrast, as propulsive and powerful as it is elegant and intimate, ‘A World Outside’ is an impressionistic take on a wide brown land.
Piano notes flow, pause and surge, variously blending with strings, synths, percussion and field recordings, and features from First Nations artists, revered Yolgnu songman Rrawun Maymuru and rising Larrakia diva, Lena Kellie.
“‘A World Outside’ is based around a very unique road trip I embarked on. Just like the scenery on a road trip transports you, I think music does the same thing, it heightens that sense of emotion and taps into that deep sense of our own selves … I wanted to douse myself in this landscape’s wild and untamed openness interpreting that experience through music. It’s a way of making lasting memories and this album is my way of documenting that … …“—Sophie Hutchings
An avid surfer and deep lover of the outdoors, she draws inspiration from the beauty of the natural world and the expansive landscape of her native Australia. She’s known for compositions that sway from the disarmingly spare and elegant to the romantic and epic – all expressing a distinct, exquisite fragility and intimacy.
‘Tomorrow’s Light’, the latest intimate solo piano EP from Sophie Hutchings, draws on inspirations ranging from Alice in Wonderland to the 13th-century poet Rumi, and explores themes of sentimental reflection, reconnection, and stepping into new territories.
Sought after as a composer and pianist, Sophie has been involved with a number of films (most recently Baby Teeth and True Spirit), toured internationally through Japan and Europe, and opened for artists such as Ólafur Arnalds, Hauschka, Federico Albanese and Lambert.
“an intimate, contemplative quality; sometimes melancholic, often with an exhilarating beauty“—The Guardian
“calm in a maddening world“—CLASH
“As a composer and pianist, Sophie Hutchings excels beyond many of her contemporaries. Refined in her approach and expressive in her musical choices, the creative force has become a staple of Australian music, with critical praise coming thick and fast.“—Wonderland
“stirring, vigorous, grandly melodic“—MOJO
“Sophie Hutchings doesn’t just play the piano, she flows with the notes“—A Closer Listen