Graham Fitch, now based in London, maintains an international
career not only as a pianist, but also as a teacher, adjudicator
and writer. He has been appointed to the piano staff at the
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and runs private teaching
studios in South West London, and the West End of London. Even
though he is associated with training specialist pianists at
the secondary and tertiary levels, he is interested in teaching
people of all ages and abilities - the only requirement is a
level of interest and motivation. Currently, his youngest student
is 9 and the oldest 78! Graham gives regular consultation lessons
to piano teachers, and enjoys working with adult amateurs who
are passionate about music and the piano.
Graham Fitch's workshops and classes which he gives all
over the world, have received high praise for their creative
and illuminating approach to the subject. First Prizewinner
in the Mieczyslaw Munz Piano Competition, he graduated with honours
from the Royal College of Music in London where he won the
prestigious Hopkinson Gold Medal for piano playing.
A Fulbright Scholarship then took him to the United States,
where he completed his studies with Ann Schein and Nina Svetlanova
(becoming her teaching assistant at the Mannes College of Music),
as well as participating in regular classes with Leon Fleisher.
During much of the 1990s, Graham Fitch's career straddled the
Atlantic with solo and chamber performances in England (where
he taught piano at the Purcell School, St. Paul's Girls' School,
the Centre for Young Musicians) and in Europe and North America.
The New York Times spoke of his playing as "unalloyed pleasure".
In the UK he was recitalist at the Bournemouth Festival, and
appeared in repeated engagements with the London Chamber Soloists
on London's South Bank. US activities included concerts with
his trio, the Trio dell'Arte, various solo appearances (including
a performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations in Merkin Hall during
the 250th anniversary of the composer's death) and a performance
of Bartok's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion with Jonathan
Haas.
From 1997 to 2008, Graham Fitch was Associate Professor, Head
of Keyboard and Head of Section of Practical Studies at the South
African College of Music, University of Cape Town, from where
he travelled extensively to perform and teach. An international
tour of Bach's Goldberg Variations elicited rapturous reviews
on four continents, and invitations to return to Australia, New
Zealand and the USA. More recently he has given a recital, a
masterclass and a keynote address at the 7th Australasian Piano
Pedagogy Conference, been in residence at London's Royal Academy
of Music, coached chamber music at the Franschhoek Chamber Music
Workshop, and participated in the Stellenbosch International
Piano Symposium.
A published author, Graham has written several articles on aspects
of piano playing and musical style. He has also produced a generation
of teachers through his influence as a teacher. He is a regular
contributor to Pianist Magazine, and is the author of a very
successful blog, http://practisingthepiano.com.
Plans for 2012 include adjudicating the Bromley Festival, followed
by a concert and teaching tour of Singapore and Australia.
LINKS:
Among Graham's prizewinning students are
• Daniel Grimwood
• James
Baillieu
• Kathleen Tagg
• Gemma
Webster
• Berta
Brozgul
For
more details of his students' successes, see under the "students" tab
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