Eric Hope

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Eric Hope (1915–1999), a British pianist, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire on 17 January 1915. Of Baltic descent, he was a pupil at Warwick School between 1931 and 1934. He studied piano playing under Kathleen Arnold in London, herself a pupil of Clara Schumann's most distinguished student, Fanny Davies.

He worked with leading figures of his day including the conductor Sir Henry Wood and the composer Arthur Bliss. He made his London debut at the BBC Promenade concerts and could be heard regularly with the London Philharmonic, London Symphony and Hallé orchestras under the batons of conductors such as Malcolm Sargent, Adrian Boult and John Pritchard. During the Second World War Eric Hope was a conscientious objector.

He became renowned as a specialist in the works of Bach, Liszt and Debussy, although he struggled with the music of Clara Schumann's great friend Johannes Brahms.

With his partner Jack Sarch, a barrister and amateur playwright, Hope founded the Pro Arte Society in the 1940s. The couple invited theatrical luminaries such as Sybil Thorndike, Ralph Richardson and Dirk Bogarde to appear in concerts of words and music, events that drew large audiences to the Royal Festival Hall.

In 1973, Hope joined the staff of the Royal Academy of Music. He also taught at the London College of Music and Media and was president of Birmingham University Music Society.

In 1998 Eric Hope announced that, following extensive research into his family's history, he wished to be known as Erik Khopinski. He died during a concert in Nottingham on 2 August 1999.

[edit] References

Obituary in The Portcullis, the Chronicle of Warwick School, October 1999.

[edit] Publications by Eric Hope

Handbook of Piano Playing (Students' Music Library) (Dobson Books Ltd, Dec 1955) ISBN-10: 0234772727 ISBN-13: 978-0234772720
Aids to technique: Muscular development exercises for pianists and other instrumentalists (Edwin Ashdown, 1962) ASIN: B0000CLJYG
Basic Piano Exercises (Edwin Ashdown, 1963) ASIN: B0000CXKB3