Middleton was born in
Cirencester,
Gloucestershire. At school he played piano, violin, flute and organ. He read music at the
University of Birmingham where he graduated with the concerto and conducting awards, a first class
BMus and
MPhil, and went on to study on an
EMI Entrance Scholarship at the
Royal Academy of Music. At the academy he studied with
Malcolm Martineau and
Michael Dussek and won all the academy's piano accompaniment awards, in addition to those at the
Wigmore Hall International Song Competition,
Kathleen Ferrier Awards,
Richard Tauber Award,
Royal Over-Seas League Competition and
Geoffrey Parsons Award. On leaving the Royal Academy his first engagements were with Sir
Thomas Allen (baritone) who invited him to tour North America, perform at Wigmore Hall and join him for his 70th birthday tour of
Winterreise, and with Dame
Felicity Lott, with whom he recorded
Elgar songs. Soon after, the mezzo-soprano Dame
Sarah Connolly invited him to be a regular collaborator and they performed all over the world and recorded together. He held a Junior Fellowship at the
Royal College of Music before returning to teach at the RAM and subsequently had the title
Fellow conferred upon him. He was the first accompanist to win the
Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award and to be listed in the
Evening Standard as one of London's Most Influential People. He is one of the most frequently heard pianists on
BBC Radio 3 and a regular collaborator on the
BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme. He holds the post of musician-in-residence at
Pembroke College, Cambridge, and has been admitted as a Bye-Fellow and is director of
Leeds Lieder. At Pembroke he programmes and plays for the Bliss International Concert Series which attracts the world's finest singers to the city. He founded and directs the Pembroke Lieder Scheme which has trained a generation of leading singers and pianists. Under his watch at Leeds Lieder the Festival has grown from a biennial event to an annual Festival of international standing complemented by an associated concert season and touring programme. It has been nominated for a RPS Award, commissions widely and won the J. M. Barrie Award for its educational work in Leeds schools. His predecessors as artistic directors at Leeds Lieder include Graham Johnson, Julius Drake, Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles and Iain Burnside. Best known for accompanying singers and for his programming flair he has partnered with Sir
Thomas Allen,
Louise Alder, Mary Bevan,
Ian Bostridge,
Allan Clayton, Dame
Sarah Connolly,
Lucy Crowe,
Iestyn Davies,
Fatma Said,
Wolfgang Holzmair,
Christiane Karg,
Katarina Karnéus,
Angelika Kirchschlager, Dame
Felicity Lott,
Christopher Maltman,
John Mark Ainsley,
Ann Murray DBE,
Mark Padmore,
Miah Persson,
Amanda Roocroft,
Kate Royal,
Matthew Rose (bass),
Carolyn Sampson,
Nicky Spence and
Roderick Williams. He has played in music centres across the world, including: London's
Wigmore Hall,
Royal Opera House and
Royal Festival Hall, New York's
Alice Tully Hall and
Park Avenue Armory,
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam,
Konzerthaus, Vienna,
Tonhalle, Zürich,
Kölner Philharmonie,
Oper Frankfurt,
Philharmonie Luxembourg,
Musée d'Orsay, Paris,
Liceu, Barcelona,
Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg,
Palau de la Música Catalana, Oji Hall Tokyo and festivals in
Aix-en-Provence,
Aldeburgh, Barcelona,
Baden Baden,
Schloss Elmau, deSingel,
Edinburgh, Munich,
Ravinia,
San Francisco, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Seoul, Stuttgart,
Toronto and Vancouver. He made his
BBC Proms debut in 2016 alongside Iestyn Davies and Carolyn Sampson and returned in 2018 alongside Dame Sarah Connolly where they premiered recently discovered songs by Benjamin Britten and launched their recital CD for Chandos He has a critically acclaimed, fast-growing and award-winning discography which has resulted in an
Edison Award with
Carolyn Sampson and numerous nominations for
Gramophone and
BBC Music Magazine Awards. His recordings on
Harmonia Mundi,
Chandos,
BIS,
Signum and Champs Hill Records with Dame Sarah Connolly, Carolyn Sampson, Iestyn Davies, Ruby Hughes, Amanda Roocroft, Louise Alder, Mary Bevan, Christopher Maltman have been selected as Disc of the Year in:
The Sunday Times;
American Record Guide;
International Classical Music Awards and on
Radio France. His interest in the furthering of the song repertoire has led
Gramophone magazine to describe him as "the absolute king of programming". == Personal life ==