Music
University of Southampton
Pianist and Broadcaster
David Owen Norris
was appointed Head of Keyboard Studies at Southampton in 1998, and was appointed
Lecturer in Performance in September 2004.
His appointment
as the first Gilmore Artist, after a long search amongst the world’s finest
pianists by an American Foundation, has led to a busy international solo career
- in the last two seasons he has toured the United States, Canada and
Australia, and played in Vienna and Munich, Norway, Denmark, Holland and
Mexico. The Seattle Times wrote in April 1998: ‘He can play like a demon
possessed, or like a cocktail-lounge pianist on hallucinogens, or like the
dreamiest caresser of ivories imaginable. An utterly quirky, highly
personalized, strangely brilliant evening of music-making.’
But he has ranged
more widely through the world of music. He was the Gresham Professor of Music,
the Artistic Director of the Cardiff Festival, the Chairman of the Steans
Institute for Singers in Chicago, a repetiteur at the Royal Opera House, and
harpist at the RSC. He was for many years a professor at the RAM, and is now
Professor of Vocal Accompaniment at the Royal College of Music. His is a
familiar voice on the radio: two of his very recent programmes are nominated
for Sony Awards.
His work often
springs from new scholarship - in recent seasons he has given world premières
of a song-cycle by Schubert and a Piano Concerto by Robert Walker based on
Elgar’s sketches. His forthcoming concerto performances on early English pianos
will throw a surprising new light on Classical harmonic procedure.
Submitted by ncook@soton.ac.uk
Last updated on 27 November, 1999