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Penelope Thwaites Pianist and Composer
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Penelope Thwaites Pianist and Composer
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THE HEADLINES |
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Click here to review and download a promotional sheet for Penelope Thwaites, containing reviews and programmes for 2010 - 2012 |
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CURRENT NEWS |
| RECORDINGS |
| Travelling Between Worlds |
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PROJECTS |
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Penelope is currently editing The New
Percy Grainger Companion to be published in 2010 by Boydell
& Brewer.
The Companion will include an
array of essays on Grainger's music by specialist performers, giving
valuable practical information and suggestions, based on experience.
There will also be much new information in the contextual
chapters by leading writers on his life and work.
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LINKS |
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Follow these links to other pages about Penelope Thwaites:
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Since her London debut at the
Wigmore Hall in 1974, Penelope Thwaites has established an international
reputation as a soloist, broadcaster and recording artist. She
has performed concertos with the |
| Of a recent London recital, Musical Opinion wrote, "Haydn . . . absorbing as it was sublime . . . Grainger, positive and heart-warming . . . perfectly articulated Debussy served with lashings of pianistic panache." |
| Her many recordings of Percy Grainger – some 250
tracks- are unique in covering his solo piano, chamber and orchestral
works. “Her devotion to his art shines out of her playing…a
wonderful album” commented BBC’s CD Review.
Her recent trio of solo CDs for Chandos presents all Grainger’s
original solo piano works in chronological context for the first time.
A recent review from The Delian ( |
| Penelope was awarded the International Grainger
Society’s Medallion in 1991 and was Artistic Director of the 1998
London Grainger Event at St John’s, Smith Square. She also founded the
first international Performing Australian Music Competition
2000/2001 and directed the Music Oz concert series at |
| Her newly-formed piano trio with Dima Tkachenko, violin and Marie Macleod, cello, was most warmly received at its Wigmore Hall debut and appears in the 2008 St John's, Smith Square lunchtime series on 31st January. |
| Her well-known duo with Australian John Lavender recently premiered a new version of Mussorgsky's, Pictures at an Exhibition together with premieres of Australian works. |
| Recent concerto appearances include the Mozart Eflat K482 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London and Grainger's, "The Warriors", with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. |
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`Penelope is also a composer. Her works include many songs, instrumental works and theatre music of which the West End musical, 'Ride! Ride!', continues in production world-wide. |
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She was appointed to the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2001. |
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| PERCY GRAINGER SPECIALIST |
Penelope's interest in Australian composer and pianist Percy Grainger was fired by hearing Benjamin Britten's marvellous recorded selection, Salute to Percy Grainger, and she began to include his music in her programmes from 1976. In 1980, she devised a lecture-recital about him entitled, The Inimitable Percy Grainger, which she has performed with great success both in Britain and abroad. Her duo with John Lavender also presents a scintillating, 'Portrait of Percy Grainger.' Grainger's centenary year in 1982, produced many concerts which received press acclaim: " ... unsuspected delights and revelations ..." Other anniversary concerts featuring Grainger have included a 1988 Australian Bicentennial two-piano recital at the Purcell Room, a BBC lunchtime recital to mark the 30th anniversary of Grainger's death and a recreation of Grainger's London Debut programme at Steinway Hall. Penelope Thwaites was Artistic Director of the first London Grainger Event - a spectacular weekend held at St John's, Smith Square in 1998: "The audience cheered their
approval." and the featured soloist in Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's Grainger Festival October 2003: "Penelope Thwaites was
inspirationally omnipresent as a guiding and motivating force." |
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| RECORDING |
| Travelling Between Worlds. Click here to find out more about Penelope Thwaites' latest recording. |
With fellow Australian, John Lavender, Penelope has recorded a 3 Volume series for Pearl Records of Percy Grainger's piano music for 4 hands. The series includes 26 First Recordings and has received excellent reviews. "A Pair of Aces . . .It would be hard to imagine
more sympathetic performances than these . . . . Thwaites and
Lavender seem to breathe together." Her solo Grainger disc, Chosen Gems for the Piano, attracted much critical acclaim: "Grainger's gems are poetry for Thwaites
... her own individual style is marked by a genuine clarity and beauty of
tone." |
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UNICORN-KANCHANA DKP(CD)9127 Click on the sleeve below to hear the track, Shepherd's Hey, from this CD
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Listen to an excerpt from Penelope Thwaites' recording
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This disc has been
re-issued on the REGIS label as |
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Penelope is a featured artist in 10 recordings for the pioneering Chandos Grainger Edition. Her first recordings, partnering 3 discs of songs, received warm praise: "Penelope Thwaites has received
great acclaim as a Grainger specialist and deserves every bit of
it. She may be the best accompanist I've heard since Gerald Moore
- a wide range of colour, dramatically suitable to the text, and so at
one with the singer that you'd swear there was only a single
performer. This entire enterprise rises beyond the level of song
recital to real chamber music." Of her recording of Grainger's Songs for Tenor with Martyn Hill, Michael Oliver wrote in Classic CD - "... Thwaites is on terrific form ..." Her recording of Grainger's Soprano Songs was Gramophone Editor's Quarterly Choice. Chandos Solo Piano I "a major
contribution to the Grainger discography" Chandos Solo Piano II, Volume 17 "A wonderful album of Grainger's
solo piano music." |
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| CATALOGUE |
Solo Piano Duo Recordings with John Lavender Multi-Piano with John Lavender, Wayne
Marshall, et al Song Recordings "This is a
glorious disc." Participation In New Releases “This collection is
absolutely superb…one CD all Delians and Graingerites should have even
if you have a dozen other Grainger solo piano CDs.” |
| Discography 1- pdf file |
| Complete catalogue |
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| BROADCASTING |
| In 1996, Penelope Thwaites presented Grainger for the first
time as BBC Composer of the Week, a 5-hour series which
brought an enormous response and was a Times Critic's Choice.
She has presented and played recitals for BBC Radio 3, broadcast as a critic for BBC CD Review, devised programmes for BBC Radio 4 and is heard regularly on Classic fm. |
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| SPECIAL EVENTS |
| Penelope Thwaites has been the driving force behind the
initiation of a new competition in the UK to promote the work of
Australian Composers. The first competition known as the Performing
Australian Music Competition was open to musicians of any nationality,
performing in the solo categories of voice, piano, strings, woodwind,
brass and harp/guitar/marimba. The competition took place in
London in 2001 and attracted 70 competitors from 20 countries playing
works by 46 Australian composers. The PAMC ran again in
2007/8. Please visit: www.amcoz.com.au/pamc |
| Saturday 16th October at 3.00pm |
| A Centenary Celebration for William Leonard Reed |
| Celebrating Grainger 2011 |
| 17-19 February 2011 at Kings Place and 20 February 2011 at The British Library |
| The New Percy Grainger Companion |
| Publisher's special offer |
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| COMPOSING |
Penelope is represented by the Australia Music Centre. Her work as a composer include the song-cycle, A Lambeth Garland, and the West End musical, Ride! Ride! She has also devised transcriptions of some of Percy Grainger's works, such as The Power of Love from the Danish Folk Song Suite. "Penelope Thwaites' own A
Lambeth Garland with its elegantly jazzy Gardener's Song and the
fairground abandon of the closing Lambeth Waltz, made for a suitably
upbeat endpiece. Most enjoyable." "The tunes stay obstinately in
the mind and return like old friends on repeated hearings." "..the strength of Alan
Thornhill's libretto and the sheer variety of Thwaites' music combine to
create a compelling aural drama." Ride Ride! has been produced world-wide. The CD, Ride! Ride! can be purchased on-line at tutti.co.uk
and by mail-order from The Piano/Vocal Score is now available
from |
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Penelope Thwaites is a Member of the |
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