Bernard Lanskey is an Australian pianist and academic leader whose artistic identity is rooted in a lifelong dialogue between performance and intellectual inquiry. Having held senior leadership roles for more than three decades and across three continents, he has influenced generations of musicians across multiple genres and from around the globe.

After completing a First Class Honours degree in music,  philosophy and mathematics at the University of Queensland, he studied at the Schola Cantorum in Paris before joining the Royal College of Music’s first Master of Music cohort, graduating in piano performance under the mentorship of Peter Wallfisch.

His leadership roles  at London’s Guildhall School (1993 - 2006), Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (2006 - 2021), and the Queensland Conservatorium (2021 - 2025) all involved periods of significant institutional and programme transformation. In each, Lanskey has championed the importance of flexible, student-centered learning paths, recognising the diversity of student backgrounds and destinies.  He has advocated unwaveringly that music is ultimately a single and integrated field transcending any distinctions of genre or instrument. As such, he believes personal and collective questioning  ought be vital in framing curriculum and institutional identity.

His current artistic practice involves event curation drawing from personal stories,  building teams which integrate performance, interdisciplinarity, and technology,  reflecting his belief that one of music's greatest attributes is its power to gift deeper barrier-free connection, both for people with each other and through interaction) with diverse fields of enquiry. Building on this philosophy, he has curated chamber music festivals in France (as an artist-in-residence at La Loingtaine) , Switzerland (Lausanne), Greece (Paxos) , Singapore and China (Central Conservatory).

Principal collaborative partners have included Stephen Emmerson (piano, artistic research), Aki Sauliere and Qian Zhou (violin), Qin Li Wei (cello), Felicitas Fuchs (voice), Andrew Schultz (composer), and John Suchet (writer and journalist) with significant projects also undertaken with  Katherine Broderick, Sofia Troncoso, Renaud Capuçon, Richard Jenkinson, Daniel Tong and Marcel Luxen among others.