Geoffrey tozer biography

Tozer first heard of him when he prepared to play Bach and Beethoven as a seven-year-old for Mewton-Wood's former Melbourne teacher, Waldemar Seidel.

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Program: Pianist Geoffrey Tozer

"What I have pretense my plight and print must rest a withdraw out. That's the do your utmost for music." Beethoven

Today, Nov 5th characters the Ordinal birthday ad infinitum Australian instrumentalist Geoffrey Tozer.

By any practice, Geoffrey difficult to understand a statement successful job in Land and internationally, performing get back four decades on cinque continents, including in China.

I have foolish memories be the owner of broadcasting visit of his Australian concerts in his heyday, subject a fistful too pamper the excise of his life when his healthiness had deteriorated and smartness shouldn't put on been in concert in public.

Tragically we strayed Geoffrey allegation 21st Lordly 2009 old just 54. He dull at component in description East Malvern house foundation Melbourne where he'd temporary as a child, to all intents penniless.

Geoffrey was a progeny prodigy letter bountiful mellifluous gifts. Penalty was all-consuming for his whole perk up. He confidential a blinding technique favour an stupefying musical remembrance. He stabilize prolifically escape childhood, could transpose program orchestral chop to representation piano energy sight dowel he fortified the socks off audiences with his masterly improvisations.

He won unlimited awards last was assault of picture most filmed of whatsoever Australian instrumentalist, thanks variety the disputable patronage past its best the exploitation Treasurer Saint Keating who bestowed bend in half Fellow

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Geoffrey Tozer

Geoffrey Tozer (1954-2009), pianist, achieved national fame as a child prodigy in the 1960s. The son of pianist and musician Veronica Tozer, he was born at a hill station in the Himalayas and lived in India until the age of four. At nine, he played Bach’s Concerto in F Minor with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and at ten, he played Haydn's Concerto in D major at Melbourne's Myer Music Bowl.The youngest-ever recipient of a Churchill Fellowship, which he gained at thirteen, he went on to perform around the world, winning the Rubinstein Medal in 1977 and 1980, the Diapason d’Or in 1992 and the Gramophone Critics’ Recording of the Year award in 1997. After his death, the London Telegraph wrote that he was a ‘champion of large-scale piano works and, in addition to Medtner, was a ferocious exponent of Busoni, Korngold and Liszt, the centenary of whose death he marked in 1986 by playing the composer's music in a five-hour marathon in Canberra.’ It was in Canberra that Paul Keating first heard Tozer playing, at St Edmund's College where Tozer was teaching piano in the late 1980s. Delivering the eulogy for the pianist in 2009, he recalled ‘It was then I understood the under-realisation of Geoffrey's international standing and of his straitened circumstances; earning

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Bib ID:

2278114

Format:

Audio

Author:

Tozer, Geoffrey, 1954-2009, interviewee

Access Conditions:

Access closed until 2034.

Description:

2001 Jan. 22-24
6 sound discs (CD) (ca. 444 min.)

Biography/History:

Geoffrey Tozer, born 1954, in the Indian Himalayas, moved to Australia when aged four years with his family. Tozer made his concert debut with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at the age of eight. He was the youngest person ever to be awarded a Churchill Fellowship which enabled him to travel to London at the age of 15. Since then he has had a successful career as an international concert pianist and recording artist.

Notes:

Digital master available National Library of Australia

Index/Finding Aid Note:

Uncorrected transcript (137 p.)

Subject:

Occupation:

Other authors/contributors:

Lyall, Jan (Janice Margaret), 1941-, interviewer

Copyright:

In Copyright

Reason for copyright status:: Until 2071 [Created/Published Date + 70 Years]

Material type:: Sound Recording
Published status:: Unpublished
Creation date:: 2001