Pianist Jeffrey Grice was born in 1954 in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, New Zealand. In 1966, his family moved to

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

where he attended Sacred Heart College in Glen Innes, counting among his classmates the future founding members of NZ's iconic rock band

Split Enz Split Enz were a New Zealand rock band formed in Auckland in 1972 by Tim Finn and Phil Judd and had a variety of other members during its existence. Originally started as a folk-oriented group with quirky art rock stylings, the band built a ...

. While studying languages (English, French and German) at

Waikato University , mottoeng = For The People , established = 1964; years ago , endowment = (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $263.6 million (31 December 2020) , chancellor = Sir Anand Satyanand, GNZM, QSO, KStJ , vice_chancellor = Neil Quigley , city ...

in Hamilton from 1971 to 1972, classical piano became his passion as he began to perform in lunchtime concerts on campus. Waikato University having no music faculty back in the 1970s, he auditioned in 1972 for the music department of the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

where, from 1973 to 1976, he studied with Janetta McStay and Bryan Sayer, graduating in French and Music. With a Queen Elizabeth Arts Council grant and a French Government scholarship, Grice left New Zealand in October 1976 to further his piano studies in Paris with

Yvonne Loriod Yvonne Louise Georgette Loriod-Messiaen (; 20 January 1924 – 17 May 2010) was a French pianist, teacher, and composer, and the second wife of composer Olivier Messiaen. Her sister was the Ondes Martenot player Jeanne Loriod. Biography Loriod ...

, obtaining the Licence de Concert at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Musique in 1978 in the class of

Germaine Mounier Germaine Mounier (7 February 1920 – 27 June 2006) was a 20th-century French classical pianist and music educator. Biography Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Mounier won First prize at the Conservatoire de Paris. She worked the piano with Yves Nat and ...

. Other formative influences came from intensive classes in Israel with Enrique Barenboim from 1979 to 1980, from the coaching of the American pianist and musicologist

Charles Rosen Charles Welles Rosen (May 5, 1927December 9, 2012) was an American pianist and writer on music. He is remembered for his career as a concert pianist, for his recordings, and for his many writings, notable among them the book ''The Classical Sty ...

and later from the French/Argentine pianist Florencia Raitzin-Legrand. Resident in France for over forty years and a French citizen since 2005, a former laureate of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, the Cziffra Foundation and the Sophia-Antipolis Foundation, Jeffrey Grice performs regularly throughout Europe and abroad as a soloist, chamber musician and vocal accompanist. In 1984, he was awarded the Prix de l'Académie du disque français for his recording Le Tombeau de Ronsard with baritone Jacques Herbillon. In 1999, he was made an "Officier dans l'

ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

" by the French government for services in the field of music. He has premiered contemporary works by composers from New Zealand,

Jenny McLeod Jennifer Helen McLeod (12 November 1941 – 28 November 2022) was a New Zealand composer and professor of music at Victoria University of Wellington. She composed several major works for big groups including ''Under the Sun'' for four orchestr ...

(seven Tone Clock Pieces, in 1988), Lucien Johnson (To the sea, in 2007, Addis Nocturnes, in 2017)

Nigel Keay Nigel Keay (born 1955) is a New Zealand composer. He has been a freelance musician since 1983 working as a composer, violist, and violin teacher. Nigel Keay has held the following composer residencies: Mozart Fellowship, University of Otago 1986 ...

(the dancer leads the procession, in 2007), France (Kirill Zaborov and David Chaillou), and Japan (

Karen Tanaka Karen Tanaka (born April 7, 1961) is a Japanese composer. Biography Karen Tanaka was born in Tokyo where she started piano and composition lessons as a child. After studying composition with Akira Miyoshi and piano with Nobuko Amada at Toho Gak ...

). He has recorded in Europe for Calliope, Erato, Integral Classic and Blümlein, in Japan for Sony Classical, Cosmo Village and JVC, and in New Zealand for Waiteata.

References

External links

Jeffrey Grice's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grice, Jeffrey 1954 births Living people 20th-century French male classical pianists 21st-century French male classical pianists New Zealand classical pianists People from Christchurch École Normale de Musique de Paris alumni Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres New Zealand emigrants to France