Steven De Groote

Steven De Groote (12 January 1953 – 22 May 1989) was a South African classical pianist.

Steven De Groote was born in Johannesburg, South Africa into a Belgian family in which, for three generations, almost every member had been a professional musician. His grandmother was a recipient of the Prix de Rome in Belgium, and his father the conductor of the Cape Town University Symphony. As a youngster, De Groote toured South Africa performing trios with his father on violin and brother on cello.

Training and early competitions

He trained with Lamar Crowson in Cape Town, and with Eduardo del Pueyo at th
Royal Conservatory of Music
in Brussels, graduating in 1971 with first prize in piano.

In 1972, De Groote entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with Rudolf Serkin, Mieczysław Horszowski, and Seymour Lipkin. He graduated in 1975.

In 1976, De Groote took honours in the Leventritt Competition in New York City. In May 1977, he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York. In September of that year, he was awarded the Grand Prize at the Van Cliburn Competition in Fort Worth, Texas.Gershunoff, Maxim, and Leon Van Dyke. ''It's Not All Song and Dance: A Life Behind the Scenes in the Performing Arts.'' Pompton Plains, N.J.: Limelight Editions, 2005. Pg 139. () In that same competition, he also took prizes for Best Performance of a Commissioned Work and Best Performance of Chamber Music, the only winner in the history of the competition to take all prizes.

Professional career

He gave his New York debut recital on November 8, 1977 at the 92nd Street Y. His Van Cliburn Prize Carnegie Hall debut recital was held on December 12, 1977.

After winning the Van Cliburn, De Groote's international career took him all over the world. In the United States, he performed with orchestras such as the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Denver Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra; in Canada, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra; in Europe, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra (Baden-Baden), the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn and in Britain, with nearly all the major British orchestras.

His debut, in 1981, at The Proms, playing Gershwin's Concerto in F with Andrew Litton conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, was televised live by the BBC
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