Geoffrey Tozer

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Geoffrey Tozer (born November 5, 1954 in Masuri , India , † August 20, 2009 in Melbourne , Victoria ) was an Australian pianist .

Life

Tozer's parents were Australians, but Tozer's mother had lived in India for four years at the time of the birth. At the age of eight, Tozer appeared publicly in a television concert for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation . A scholarship enabled him to study in London , where he made his debut at the age of 15 in a concert with orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall under the direction of Sir Colin Davis .

Tozer became a press target in the 1990s after it became known that he had received two more artistic grants totaling AUS- $ 500,000 from a foundation owned by then Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating . Tozer himself had inspired Keating for the foundation because he had to ride a bike to take the piano lessons he gave his son because of his annual income of just AUS $ 9,000. The scholarship enabled Tozer to finance trips to London after signing a contract with Chandos Records in 1991 .

Tozer's first recordings there were the three piano concertos by Nikolai Medtner with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Neeme Järvi , which at that time hardly played , and which suddenly made him famous worldwide. Further recordings of solo piano music by Medtner followed; By 2009 Tozer had recorded a large part of the piano music, including all piano sonatas, and was thus the most widely recorded Medtner performer of all. Indeed, Medtner's greatest patron was Jayachamaraja Wodeyar , the Maharaja of Mysore , once a friend of Tozer's mother in India.

In addition to Medtner's music, Tozer's recording activity, which has produced 39 CDs, has concentrated on other lesser-known composers or works of the 20th century, including Alan Rawsthorne , John McEwen , Erich Wolfgang Korngold , Robert Gerhard , Ottorino Respighi , Ferruccio Busoni , Artur Schnabel , Nikolai Tscherepnin and Percy Grainger .

Geoffrey Tozer died on August 20, 2009 in Melbourne at the age of 54.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Geoffrey Tozer loses battle" in Herald Sun, August 23, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Tozer, Geoffrey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian pianist
DATE OF BIRTH 5th November 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Masuri , India
DATE OF DEATH August 20, 2009
Place of death Melbourne , Australia