Rosemarie Wright (12 December 1931 – 25 April 2020) was an English pianist.Honeybourne, Duncan. ''Rosemarie Wright: an obituary'', at MusicWeb International
/ref> Wright was born in Chorley,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Patrick Cory and

Harold Craxton Thomas Harold Hunt Craxton (30 April 188530 March 1971) was an English pianist, teacher and composer. Born in London, and growing up in Devizes, Craxton began studying piano with Tobias Matthay and Cuthbert Whitemore in 1907, and made a name for ...

, winning many prizes including the Chappell Silver Medal and Tobias Matthay Fellowship. Her later studies were with

Bruno Seidlhofer Bruno Georg Seidlhofer (5 September 1905 – 19 February 1982) was an Austrian pianist, organist, academic teacher and piano teacher at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Life Born in Vienna, Seidlhofer taught piano at the Aca ...

at the Vienna Academy of MusicStaatsakademie, and with

Edwin Fischer Edwin Fischer (6 October 1886 – 24 January 1960) was a Swiss classical pianist and conductor. He is regarded as one of the great interpreters of J.S. Bach and Mozart in the twentieth century. Biography Fischer was born in Basel and studied ...

and

Wilhelm Kempff Wilhelm Walter Friedrich Kempff (25 November 1895 – 23 May 1991) was a German pianist and composer. Although his repertoire included Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms, Kempff was particularly well known for his interpretations ...

. She studied chamber music with the cellist Pablo Casals. Wright won the Haydn Prize in the International Haydn-Schubert Competition in Vienna in 1959, and in 1960 became the first British pianist ever to win the Bösendorfer Prize. Wright made her recital debut in the Großer Saal of the

Vienna Musikverein The ( or ; ), commonly shortened to , is a concert hall in Vienna, Austria, which is located in the Innere Stadt district. The building opened in 1870 and is the home of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. The acoustics of the building's 'Gre ...

in 1960, stepping in for an indisposed

Martha Argerich Martha Argerich (; Eastern Catalan: �ɾʒəˈɾik born 5 June 1941) is an Argentine classical concert pianist. She is widely considered to be one of the greatest pianists of all time. Early life and education Argerich was born in Buenos A ...

. This launched a distinguished international career including recitals, concerto performances and chamber music worldwide. She appeared as concerto soloist with many of Europe's renowned orchestras and with many distinguished conductors, and was broadcast from over thirty different European radio stations. At home she made her debut at the

Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

at the Royal Albert Hall in 1971, as soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by

Sir Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London ...

. Wright was pianist-in-residence at the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

(1972–1980), senior lecturer in keyboard studies at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) (1972–78) and professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music (1978–1997). She was elected a fellow of the RNCM in 1993. Wright was married in 1961 and had two sons. She died in 2020.Duncan Honeybourne
Rosemarie Wright obituary
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 3 June 2020

References

*The Musical Times, volume 101, no. 1409 (July 1960), page 439

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Rosemarie 1931 births 2020 deaths English classical pianists English women pianists Academics of the Royal Northern College of Music Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music People from Chorley Musicians from Lancashire 21st-century British pianists 21st-century English women musicians 21st-century classical pianists 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century English women musicians 20th-century English musicians 21st-century English musicians 20th-century women pianists 21st-century women pianists