Grant Foster (born 1945) is an Australian composer, pianist, teacher and novelist. He was the co-founder and inaugural Artistic Director of the Southern Highlands International Piano Competition. His musical is lyrical and romantic, and he is well-known in Russia, despite being relatively unknown in his own country.
The musical Peter Pan, directed by Sir Robert Helpmann, with music by Foster, ran in London for seven consecutive Christmas seasons.[3][4] After 20 years in Europe, he returned to Australia in 1985. In 2007 he co-founded the Southern Highlands International Piano Competition, which is held every two years.[4] He was its Artistic Director until 2013, when he was succeeded by Gerard Willems.
He is better known in Russia than in Australia. His works have been recorded by the Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra, by the Serbian-born pianist Mira Yevtich, among others.[3]
Foster has also written eight novels, six of them for children.[4] He resides in Bowral, New South Wales.[3]
The Pearl of Dubai Suite & The Ballad of the Reading Gaol
Released: 2012
Format: Digital
Label: Mira Yevtich
When Love Speaks: Works for Piano Composed and Performed By Grant Foster
Released: 2016
Format: CD, Digital
Label: Melba Recordings (MR 301147)
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy is a Russian solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. Born in the Soviet Union, he has held Icelandic citizenship since 1972 and has been a resident of Switzerland since 1978. Ashkenazy has collaborated with well-known orchestras and soloists. In addition, he has recorded a large repertoire of classical and romantic works. His recordings have earned him five Grammy awards and Iceland's Order of the Falcon.
Elena Davidovna Kats-Chernin is a Soviet-born Australian composer and pianist, best known for her ballet Wild Swans.
Lazar "Larry" Sitsky is an Australian composer, pianist, and music educator and scholar. His long term legacy is still to be assessed, but through his work to date he has made a significant contribution to the Australian music tradition.
Philippe Entremont is a French classical pianist and conductor. His recordings as a pianist include concertos by Tchaikovsky, Maurice Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saëns and others.
Carl Edward Vine, is an Australian composer of contemporary classical music.
Simon Tedeschi is an Australian classical pianist and writer.
Denis Leonidovich Matsuev is a Russian pianist. Primarily a classical pianist, he also performs jazz occasionally.
Geoffrey Lancaster is an Australian classical pianist and conductor. Born in Sydney, he was raised in Dubbo, New South Wales before moving to Canberra. He attended the Canberra School of Music where he studied piano with Larry Sitsky. He also studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy, and also completed a master's degree at the University of Tasmania. In 1984, he moved to Amsterdam to study fortepiano with Stanley Hoogland at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. In 1996 he was a professor at the Royal College of Music in London, following which he worked at the School of Music at the University of Western Australia. He was a professor of the ANU School of Music from 2000 until 2012. Now based in Perth, he is Professor of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University.
Richard Leo Tognetti AO is a leading Australian musician recognised internationally as a violin soloist, ensemble player, leader, composer and arranger, conductor and artistic director.
The Sydney International Piano Competition is a music competition, presented in Sydney and broadcast live throughout Australia and internationally. It is held every four years, over a three-week period in July–August, and is internationally recognised as one of the world's great piano competitions.
Piers Lane is an Australian classical pianist.
Constantine Garrievich Orbelian, Jr. is an American conductor and pianist of Armenian and Russian descent. He is named after his paternal uncle Konstantin Orbelyan, a major Armenian composer. Constantine Orbelian is currently music director and Principal Conductor of the New York City Opera.
Dene Maxwell Olding is an Australian violinist. He has had a distinguished career as a soloist in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, performing over forty concertos in recent years, including many world premieres. He is the Concertmaster Emeritus of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, first violinist in the Goldner String Quartet, and a member of the Australia Ensemble.
Barry Ernest Conyngham,, is an Australian composer and academic. He has over 70 published works and over 30 recordings featuring his compositions, and his works have been premiered or performed in Australia, Japan, North and South America, the United Kingdom and Europe. His output is largely for orchestra, ensemble or dramatic forces. He is an Emeritus Professor of both the University of Wollongong and Southern Cross University. He is former Dean of the Faculty of the Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne.
Gerard Willems AM is a Dutch- Australian classical pianist and teacher. He was the first Australian pianist to record the complete series of 32 piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven. He also recorded Beethoven's five piano concertos, the Diabelli Variations, C minor variations, Andante favori, Für Elise and the 3 Electoral "Kurfürstensonaten" sonatas as well as a reconstructed "Fantasy Sonata in D". These recordings feature the Australian designed and manufactured Stuart & Sons piano. This series of recordings constitutes the largest classical music recording project ever undertaken in Australia, and Willems became the best selling classical artist in Australia's recording history.
Rueibin Chen is a Taiwanese concert pianist, who was selected by the government in a talent search and sent to Vienna, where he obtained a concert diploma at the Conservatory. Subsequently, he received a soloist's examination award from the Hannover Hochschule für Musik and then continued his study under the Russian pianist Lazar Berman.
Nathan Waks is an Australian cellist, composer, record producer, arts administrator and wine company owner.
Benjamin Northey is an Australian conductor, musician and arranger. He has been Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in New Zealand since 2015. He is also the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor - Learning and Engagement of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra having previously been Principal Conductor in Residence from 2020-2023. He was previously the Associate Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra from 2010-2019. He is also the Artistic Director Designate of the Australian Conducting Academy, a national training program for Australian and New Zealand Conductors which he will commence in 2025.
Jayson Lloyd Gillham is a British-Australian classical pianist, based in London. In 2014, Gillham was the winner of the 2014 Montreal International Musical Competition, which brought him to international attention. His outstanding performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 was described in the Huffington Post as being played 'with such streamlined patrician elegance that he took home First Prize and a string of engagements...' The renowned British conductor Sir Mark Elder said Gillham 'plays Beethoven with a sort of ‘glow’'. In May 2015, Gillham signed a three-album deal with ABC Classics.
Robert Herschel Silverman, CM, born May 25, 1938, in Montreal is a noted Canadian pianist and piano pedagogue. He was made Member of the Order of Canada in 2013. In 1998 he became the inaugural recipient of the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award of the Ontario Arts Foundation. His widely acclaimed 10-CD recording of all thirty-two Beethoven sonatas was short-listed for a Juno Award for Best Classical Album: Solo or Chamber Ensemble. His Liszt recording was awarded the 1977 Grand Prix du disque by the Budapest Liszt Society. He lives in Vancouver with his wife and occasional duet partner, pianist Ellen (Nivert) Silverman.
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