Niel Immelman (born 13 August 1944) is a South African classical pianist resident in the UK. He grew up in Jacobsdal and later in Bloemfontein. Immelman first received piano lessons from his mother Nettie Immelman. He subsequently studied at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

(RCM) with

Cyril Smith Sir Cyril Richard Smith (28 June 1928 – 3 September 2010) was a prominent British politician who after his death was revealed to have been a prolific serial sex offender against children. A member of the Liberal Party, he was Member of ...

. He was also a pupil of

Ilona Kabos Ilona Kabos (7 December 189327 May 1973) was a Hungarian-British pianist and teacher. Biography Kabos was born in Budapest in 1893 (some sources give her year of birth as 1894, 1898 or 1902). She studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music unde ...

Lamar Crowson John Lamar Crowson (May 27, 1926 – August 25, 1998) was an American concert pianist and a chamber musician.'' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (2009) Crowson was born in Tampa, Florida. His early education was in Portland, Oregon, wit ...

, and

Maria Curcio Maria Curcio (27 August 1918 or 191930 March 2009) was an Italian classical pianist who became a sought-after teacher. Her students included Barry Douglas, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Martha Argerich, Evelyne Brancart, Radu Lupu, Dame Mitsuko Uchida, ...

. Whilst still a student at the

Bernard Haitink Bernard Johan Herman Haitink (; 4 March 1929 – 21 October 2021) was a Dutch conductor and violinist. He was the principal conductor of several international orchestras, beginning with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1961. He moved to Lond ...

invited him to perform

Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...

's ''

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini The ''Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini'', Op. 43, (russian: Рапсодия на тему Паганини, ''Rapsodiya na temu Paganini'') is a concertante work written by Sergei Rachmaninoff for piano and orchestra, closely resembling a piano ...

'' with the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...

, as his professional debut. Immelman has made a speciality of Czech piano music, and has made commercial recordings of the piano works of Josef Suk and of

Vítězslav Novak Vítězslav () is a Czech given name. It may refer to: *Vítězslav Hálek (1835–1874), Czech writer *Karel Vítězslav Mašek (1865–1927), Czech artist *Vítězslav Novák (1870–1949), Czech composer * Ludvík Vítězslav Čelanský (1870–1 ...

, for the Meridian label. His four CD recordings of the complete piano works of Suk was the first complete commercial recorded cycle. Immelman is currently on the piano faculty of the RCM. He was made a fellow of the RCM in 2000. He serves regularly as a jury member in various international piano competitions.

References

External links

Royal College of Music page on Niel Immelman

Classic SA interview with Niel Immelman, 22 August 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Immelman, Niel South African classical pianists Alumni of the Royal College of Music Academics of the Royal College of Music Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 1944 births 21st-century classical pianists