Iain Masson is the former Resident Pianist of the Swallow Hotel Dundee, Bar Epernay and Wigmore's Wine Bar, Restaurant and Bistro in Broughty Ferry. He is a former member on tuba of the National Youth Brass Bands of Scotland and Arbroath Instrumental Band.

He is currently a piano teacher for the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership, Shades Music School and teaches music privately in the West Midlands, with a BMus(Hons) in Composition from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Composition from the RNCM.

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His composition tutors were Dr. Thomas Simaku, Professor John Mayer and Professor Adam Gorb. Iain studied coaching, player management and musical direction privately with Richard Evans in the North of England. During his studies in Manchester, Iain obtained one of the highest possible marks in his SPS Musical Direction examination at the Royal Northern College of Music, obtaining a score of 95% for his conducting of a Schubert orchestral movement.

As a postgraduate student at RNCM, he won the 2005 RNCM Alan Rawsthorne Composition Prize and was commissioned to write a 5-minute companion piece to Stravinsky's 'The Soldier's Tale', premiered by the RNCM New Ensemble at the Bridgewater Hall as part of the RNCM's flagship Gala Concert.

Iain has delivered music projects and workshops for Hallé Orchestra Education (as Assistant Trainee Composer on the 'Eighth Door' project in Salford 2004-5), as an assistant for the Hallé Orchestra Family Concerts Series,  as a workshop leader for City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Education (primary years), Creative Partnerships (primary years), Musicate (primary years) and several other arts organisations, many scrapped under the Conservatives.
 

Iain's compositions have been performed live on BBC Radio 3's 'In Tune' show from BBC Broadcasting House and at venues including  Hall One King's Place London, the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building and the Kungliga Operan, Stockholm. Performers include the Brodsky Quartet, Cats' Adam Linstead, RNCM New Ensemble and the Goldberg Ensemble.



Performance prizes in brass and piano include the The Evelyn Forbes Ruark Memorial Scholarship for Solo Piano Performance, the Dr. and Mrs. William Christie Piano Trio Rosebowl, the Miss K.H. McLauchlan Cup for Piano Performance.
 

Iain is a proud former recipient of the Dr. Kenneth Ruark Memorial Award for Citizenship. In 2015 he was proudly conferred with Honorary Membership of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (HonRBC) for services to music in the ten years following graduation. 

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In 2023, he was presented with a Fellowship of the Guild of Musicians and Singers at the Regent Hall in London.
 

Iain is a member of the Independent Society of Musicians 87895.

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"a really accomplished composer" - Brodsky Quartet, Birmingham Post