Claire and Antoinette Cann (born 1963), known professionally as the Cann Twins, are British identical twin sisters and professional pianists who perform together as a piano duo.

Early life and education

Claire and Antoinette Cann were born in England in 1963. They studied at the Watford School of Music with Jean Merlow and Robert Pell, before progressing to the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) 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 pe ...

where they studied with

Phyllis Sellick Phyllis Sellick, OBE (16 June 191126 May 2007)John Amis, Obituaries''Phyllis Sellick'' Guardian UnlimitedObituaries''Phyllis Sellick'' The Daily TelegraphObituariesPhyllis Sellick, The Independent was a British pianist and teacher, best known ...

and latterly received the President's Rosebowl. They won scholarships to Banff School of Fine Arts, Canada.

Career

Performing

Since turning professional in the 1980s they have toured extensively throughout Europe, Canada, USA, New Zealand and the Far East. They perform frequent concerts in the U.K. at venues including the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

, the International Series at the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a G ...

, Barbican Hall,

Fairfield Halls Fairfield Halls is an arts, entertainment and conference centre in Croydon, London, England, which opened in 1962 and contains a theatre and gallery, and a large concert hall regularly used for BBC television, radio and orchestral recordings. F ...

Croydon,

Colston Hall Bristol Beacon, previously Colston Hall, is a concert hall and Grade II listed building on Colston Street, Bristol, England. It is owned by Bristol City Council. Since 2011, it has been managed by Bristol Music Trust. The hall opened as a con ...

, Bristol, St. David's Hall, Cardiff, Theatre Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham and the

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Glasgow Royal Concert Hall is a concert and arts venue located in Glasgow, Scotland. It is owned by Glasgow City Council and operated by Glasgow Life, an agency of Glasgow City Council, which also runs Glasgow's City Halls and Old Fruitmarket ...

. They have performed with orchestras including the

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, England. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable recording contracts and important engagemen ...

and Concert Orchestra, the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is a British orchestra based in London. One of five permanent symphony orchestras in London, the LPO was founded by the conductors Thomas Beecham, Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a riv ...

, the

BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale sym ...

, the Philomusica of London, the Wren Orchestra and the

London Mozart Players London Mozart Players (LMP) are a British chamber orchestra founded in 1949. LMP are the longest-established chamber orchestra in the United Kingdom. Since 1989, the orchestra has been Resident Orchestra at Fairfield Halls, Croydon. History Begin ...

. They were invited by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother to perform at the

Royal Lodge Royal Lodge is a Grade II listed house in Windsor Great Park in Berkshire, England, half a mile north of Cumberland Lodge and south of Windsor Castle. The site of homes since the 17th century, the present structure dates from the 19th centur ...

in Windsor Great Park for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Broadcasting

They have made radio broadcasts in Canada, Denmark, Germany, Israel and New Zealand, plus both Classic FM and

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

in the UK. Their television appearances include: the UK, Japan, USA and New Zealand.

Recording

The sisters first published CD recording, ''Fantasy'', was described by the Penguin Guide to Compact Discs as "delightful and generous, ...plenty of virtuosity and, ... especially enjoyable transcriptions; both the Sleeping Beauty Suite and the Polovtsian Dances are sparkling examples". The second recording, ''Reflections'' was the Classic FM Critic's Choice. It was described as catching "... the shimmering tone colours of Ravel's Introduction and Allegro to perfection. No less impressive was Fauré's Dolly Suite". Their third recording, ''La Danse'', was selected in

HMV HMV is an international music and entertainment retailer, founded in 1921. The brand is owned by Hilco Capital and operated by Sunrise Records, except in Japan, where it is owned and operated by Lawson. The inaugural shop was opened on Lo ...

's Top 49 CDs. Gramophone Magazine described it as "a delightful record, ... scintillating in their two-piano and piano-duet format, ... totally winning without any preciosity or self-consciousness."

Teaching

They give masterclasses in both Europe and America where they are Visiting Professors. The schools include the

, London, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester,

Stetson University Stetson University is a private university in DeLand, Florida, United States. Established in 1883 as DeLand Academy, it was later renamed John B. Stetson University in honor of John B. Stetson. The university's main campus in DeLand spans 175 ...

, Florida, and Loyola University, New Orleans.

Commissions

Premieres and works written for them include: *The world premiere of Timothy Blinko's ''Gemini Concerto'' with the English Sinfonia was commissioned by ''SoundSense''. *The South Bank premiere of the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra by

Max Bruch Max Bruch (6 January 1838 – 2 October 1920) was a German Romantic Music, Romantic composer, violinist, teacher, and conductor who wrote more than 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin ...

was performed at the Royal Festival Hall. *The world premiere of Terry Winter Owens' ''Intimations of Celestial Events'' for Trumpet (Antoinette) and Piano (Claire) was held in New York. * The world premiere of the ''Variations for Two Pianos'', Op. 19 by Geoffrey Winters was given in Cambridge on 2 October 2008, nearly fifty years after it had been composed.

Discography

The twins have released three albums of piano music:

''Fantasy''

;Track listing: # Rimsky-Korsakoff (arr. Rachmaninoff), '' Flight of the Bumble Bee'' #

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 of ...

, 18th Variation from '' Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini'' #

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...

(arr. Rachmaninoff), '' Sleeping Beauty Suite'' # Michael Elliot, ''Berceuse pour deux'' #

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

, 3 movements from '' Mother Goose Suite'' # Borodin (arr. Cann) '' Polovtsian Dances'' # Terry Winter Owens, Pianophoria No. 3 # Gershwin (arr. Grainger), Fantasy on ''

Porgy and Bess ''Porgy and Bess'' ( ) is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play ''Porgy (play), ...

''Reflections''

;Track listing: #Rachmaninoff, Suite No. 2 Op. 17 #Ravel, Introduction and Allegro #

William Walton Sir William Turner Walton (29 March 19028 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include ''Façade'', the cantat ...

, Popular Song from ''

Façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

'' #

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. ...

, '' Dolly Suite'' Op. 56 # Poulenc, ''L'embarquement pour Cythère'' #

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...

, Fantasia in F minor Op. 103

''La Danse''

;Track listing: # Saint-Saëns, ''

Danse Macabre The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory from the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of death, summoning represen ...

'' #

Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

, '' Petite Suite'' #

(arr. Cann) Dances from '' The Nutcracker Suite'' #

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, often set within studied ye ...

, '' Variations on the St. Anthony Choral'' #

Edward MacDowell Edward Alexander MacDowell (December 18, 1860January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the late Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites '' Woodland Sketches'', ''Sea Pieces'' and ''Ne ...

, ''Hexentanz'' #Brahms, Waltzes from Op. 39 #

Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most pro ...

, '' Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2''

Awards

They have been awarded : * Gramophone 'Critic's Choice', * Classic FM 'Critic's Choice', *

'Best 49 CDs' *A rosette in ' The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music (formerly ''The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs'').

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cann, Claire and Antoinette 1963 births Alumni of the Royal College of Music Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity alumni Living people Classical piano duos English classical pianists English identical twins British women classical pianists 20th-century British classical pianists 20th-century British women classical pianists Honorary members of the Royal Academy of Music Twin musical duos 20th-century English women musicians English women pianists 21st-century British classical pianists 21st-century English women musicians Identical twin females 20th-century British women pianists 21st-century British women pianists Sibling musical duos