Please note: this site is no longer maintained. Please visit Wendy's new site at
www.wendyhiscocks.com
WENDY HISCOCKS was born near Sydney and began playing the piano at an early age. In her teens she started composing, and went on to study composition with Peter Sculthorpe at Sydney University. In the three years following her graduation, her creative work with schoolchildren established composition as an accredited subject in the West Australian school syllabus. Since she moved to London in 1987, her compositions have been performed and broadcast worldwide, earning a reputation for originality and grace. In Piano magazine John York described her as "inspiring" and "a composer of great finesse".
Wendy has earned commissioning grants from the Arts Council of England and the Australia Council, and has had works commissioned, premièred and recorded by a distinguished line-up of singers, instrumentalists, chamber groups and choirs. The first piece of her children's piano collection Light was selected immediately on publication for the syllabus of the Fédération française des Écoles de Musique, and her suite The Piper at the Gates of Dawn figures on the Licentiate syllabus of the Australian Music Examination Board. Under the name Creativity and Music she gives composition courses for young people in various countries.
As pianist Wendy enjoys a varied performing career in chamber music, as song accompanist and in piano duo. She has performed at London's Purcell Room, in Festivals and broadcasts (live and recorded) in the UK, France and Australia, and can be heard on a CD of Chabrier piano music.
ROY HOWAT's concerts, lectures, masterclasses and broadcasts regularly take him worldwide. A graduate of King's College, Cambridge, and a former student of Vlado Perlemuter, he enjoys a large repertoire ranging from before Mozart to works composed for him by living composers. His expertise in French music has led to his being a founding editor (with Pierre Boulez) of the Paris-based Complete Debussy Edition, author of the influential book Debussy in proportion, and editor of acclaimed Peters and Dover editions of music by Fauré and Chabrier. One of the few British artists repeatedly invited to teach and play French music at such places as the Paris and Geneva Conservatoires and on French radio, he also gives masterclasses and lectures at institutions such as America's Juilliard and Eastman Schools and Peabody Conservatory.
Roy Howat has performed world premières of works by Bizet, Chabrier, Debussy, Robin Orr and Wendy Hiscocks, toured Bartók's Sonata for 2 pianos & percussion with Erzsébet Tusa, the former duo partner of Ditta Bartók (earning standing ovations), directed Mozart Piano Concertos from the keyboard as far afield as Hong Kong, given live broadcasts of late Schubert sonatas in the USA, Switzerland and Australia, and performed chamber music with an array of distinguished colleagues. His performance at Japan's 2002 Kusatsu Festival of Fauré's First Piano Quintet, with the Panocha Quartet of Prague, brought the house down, as did their later performances in the Czech Republic and in London's Wigmore Hall. Roy's recordings include a CD of Chabrier piano solos and duos (with Wendy Hiscocks), various discs of chamber music, and Debussy's complete piano music on the Tall Poppies label (including two premiere recordings). He holds the post of Keyboard Research Fellow at London's Royal Academy of Music, and is on the regular Faculty of Summer Academies in various countries.
Duo and Duet Repertoire
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