Graham Fitch is an English pianist and piano teacher.

Biography

Fitch was the first prize winner in the Mieczyslaw Munz Piano Competition, and graduated with honours from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including performanc ...

as a

Hopkinson Gold Medal Hopkinson is a surname of English and Welsh origin. Notable people with the surname include: * Abdur Rahman Slade Hopkinson (born 1934), West Indian writer * Alfred Hopkinson (18511939), British politician * Alister Hopkinson (194199), New Zealan ...

ist. He came to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship and completed his studies with Nina Svetlanova. A 1985 review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' described his playing as "unalloyed pleasure". During the 1990s, Fitch performed in England, where he taught piano at the

Purcell School The Purcell School for Young Musicians is a specialist music school for children, located in the town of Bushey, south Hertfordshire, England, and is the oldest specialist music school in the UK. The school was awarded the UNESCO Mozart Medal ...

. He was a solo recitalist at the Bournemouth Festival, and appeared in repeat engagements with the London Chamber Soloists on London's South Bank. In America he played solo and in concerts with the Trio dell'Arte. Fitch was an associate professor at the University of Cape Town until 2008. He gave recitals, masterclasses and keynote addresses at the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference and London's Royal Academy of Music and participated in the

Stellenbosch Stellenbosch (; )A Universal Pronounc ...

International Piano Symposium in 2008.

SABC defamation and settlement

In June and July 2008, the television show

SABC Special Assignment ''Special Assignment'' is an investigative current affairs programme on SABC. Since August 1998 the programme has covered news events in South Africa and beyond, often disclosing criminal activities and atrocities unknown to the public. Ashraf Ga ...

aired two programs which made unsubstantiated allegations that Fitch had had sex with under-age boys and had told colleagues that he was a crack addict. In response to the broadcast, Fitch filed a complaint with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) alleging defamation. In April 2009, the BCCSA agreed with Fitch, finding that the programmes were defamatory and that

SABC The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's stat ...

had been negligent in broadcasting them, concluding that it was an "unfair trial by the media" and that Fitch had been "degraded to the status of the hunted." The commission ruled that "the truth of the allegations was not sufficiently substantiated and that, as such, the allegations and claims would not be acceptable in a court of law."G Fitch vs SABC Final Ruling
/ref> SABC was fined 30,000 Rand for the first episode and 50,000 Rand for the second episode. At the time, this was the largest fine ever levied by the commission.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitch, Graham Living people University of Cape Town academics Alumni of the Royal College of Music English classical pianists Male classical pianists Year of birth missing (living people) People educated at Dr Challoner's Grammar School 21st-century classical pianists 21st-century British male musicians