SAN FRANCISCO, CA, January 20, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The Australian concert pianist, composer, conductor and pedagogue Roger Woodward is widely regarded as belonging to the highest echelon of classical musicians. His immense repertoire embraces traditional and contemporary works although his musical training is steeped in church music. Lord Yehudi Menuhin discovered the young artist at the UNESCO Jeunesses Musicales (Paris) after which he made his London debut at the Royal Festival Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and began recording for: EMI, Decca, DG, Polydor, CPO, Warner, RCA, Celestial Harmonies, ABC Classics and the Universal recording company. He rose to international prominence in a series of extended collaborations with: Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Jean Barraqué, Yannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Toru Takemitsu, Qu Xiaosong, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Robert Greenberg, Arvo Pärt, Luciano Berio, Sylvano Bussotti, Leo Brouwer, James Dillon, Rolf Gehlhaar, Horatiu Radulescu, Anne Boyd, Richard Meale, Ross Edwards, Barry Conyngham and Larry Sitsky, most of whom dedicated works to him.
The artist performed at venues which include: the Sydney and La Scala Opera Houses, Hollywood Bowl, Tiananmen Square, the Odéon of the Herodes Atticus, the Gulbenkian Gardens, Lisbon, Royal Albert Hall London and at major international concert halls at the invitation of Claudio Abbado, Zubin Mehta, Charles Dutoit, Lorin Maazel, Sir Charles Mackerras, Kurt Masur, Nello Santi, Edo de Waart, Wilhelm van Otterloo, Paavo Bergland, Georg Tintner, Tan Lihua, Erich Leinsdorf, Eliahu Inbal, Walter Susskind, Hans Zender, Georges Tzipine and Witold Rowicki et al, with orchestras including: the New York, Los Angeles, Beijing, Israel and Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestras, Cleveland Orchestra, five London Orchestras, London Sinfonietta, London Mozart Players, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Berlin Radio Orchestra and Budapest and Prague Chamber Orchestras etc.
He performed at over one hundred festivals on five continents including the BBC Promenade Concerts London, Festival d'automne à Paris, La Biennale di Venezia, Wien Modern, Edinburgh Festival, Warszawska Jesień, Music Today Festival Tokyo, Festival de la Roque d'Anthéron, and at the invitation of Sviatoslav Richter, at the Festival de la Grange de Meslay, Touraine.
Some distinguished collaborations were with the Vienna Trio, Graeme Murphy and the Sydney Dance Company in which the artist directed multiple performances of Xenakis' Kraanerg; concerts with: the Arditti, Tokyo, Alexander and JACK String Quartets, with the harpsichordist George Malcolm and jazz pianist Cecil Taylor. He also worked with the musicologists: Charles Rosen, Arthur Hedley, HC Robbins-Landon, Richard Toop and the Cuban pedagogue Jorge Luis Herrero Dante; violinists Ivry Gitlis, Wanda Wilkomirska, Philippe Hirschhorn, Ilya Grubert; the cellist Rohan de Saram, Synergy Percussion and with Frank Zappa. He founded the Sydney International Piano Competition and founded and directed festivals: in the UK (London Music Digest), Carinthia, Austria (Kötschach-Mauthen Musikfest), La Bourgogne (Son et Lumière), Sydney Spring International Festival of New Music and the Sydney International Piano Competition. He was Chair of Music at the University of New England (Australia) and Founding Chair of the School of Music and Dance, San Francisco State University where he is currently, a professor. He is published by HarperCollins and the Pendragon and Greenway Press.
Roger Woodward was born in Sydney, December 20th, 1942, where he first studied piano with Winifred Pope and organ, harpsichord and church music with Kenneth Long, Master of Music at the St Andrew's Cathedral. At the Sydney Conservatorium he studied piano with Alexander Sverjensky (a pupil of Sergei Rakhmaninov and Alexander Glazunov) and composition with Raymond Hanson. He won the Commonwealth Finals of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's National Concerto and Vocal Competition then studied piano at the National Chopin Academy of Music Warsaw, with Zbigniew Drzewiecki. He made his debut with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra in the National Philharmonic Hall, Warsaw and soon after, his debut at the Carnegie Hall with a performance of Bartók's Second Piano Concerto directed by Witold Rowicki. He performed the complete works of Chopin, Debussy and on multiple occasions, the complete Beethoven sonatas and concertos.
He was commissioned by the Festival d'automne à Paris for his own works for the bicentennial celebrations of the French Revolution as well as by the Sydney Spring. His recordings won wide critical acclaim with the award of the Goethe prize (shared) and for his Bach performances, Preis der Deutschen Scallplattenkritik; he is also recipient of the Diapason d'or, France and Ritmo prize, Spain. Legendary recordings of repertoire by JS Bach, Debussy, Jean Barraqué, Yannis Xenakis, Morton Feldman, Toru Takemitsu, Hans Otte, Dmitry Shostakovich and Larry Sitsky are widely regarded as the most outstanding in their field.
The artist was awarded many distinguished honors and prizes, notably: Chevalier dans l'ordre des arts et des lettres, Knight of the Order of Breffni. He is recipient of the Polish Order of Merit (Commander class), Polish Solidarity award by the citizens of Gdańsk, Polish Gloria Artis (gold class) and of the Order of the British Empire. He is a Companion of the Order of Australia, recipient of the Australian Centenary (Federation) Award and was designated a National Treasure by Australia's National Trust.
# # #