In the thirty years he has been performing on the concert stage, Murray Perahia has become one of the most sought after and cherished pianists of our time.

Recognised worldwide as a musician of rare musical sensitivity, Mr Perahia, performs in all of the major international music centres and with every leading orchestra of the world. His appearances this season include a series of eight concerts of Mozart Piano Concertos with Maazel m Munich, recitals in cities including Milan, Berlin, Madrid, Vienna, and London and tours with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, playing and conducting Mozart Concertos and conducting Haydn Symphonies.

Mr Perahia's many recordings include the complete Mozart piano concertos (in which he directs the English Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard), the complete Beethoven concertos (with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink), as well as numerous solo discs covering a broad spectrum of composers. This year Sony will be releasing the complete Bach English Suites.

Murray Perahia was born in New York. He started playing the piano at the age of four and later attended Mannes College where he majored in conducting and composition. His summers were spent in Marlboro, where he collaborated with musicians such as Rudolph Serkin, Pablo Casals and the members of the Budapest Quartet. He also studied at the time with Mieczyslaw Horszowski.

In 1972 Murray Perahia won the Leeds International Piano Competition. Engagements throughout Europe soon followed. In 1973 he gave his first concert at the Aldeburgh Festival where he met and worked closely with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, accompanying the latter in many lieder recitals. He became co-artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival from 1981 to 1989. In subsequent years, he developed a close friendship with Vladimir Horowitz whose perspective and personality were an abiding inspiration.

In May 1998, Murray Perahia was presented with the 1997 Instrumentalist award by the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Murray Perahia is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music

September 1998

Photos for PR use

murray_perahia.jpg Dpi: 300. Size: 1796 x 1911 Credit: