Penelope Thwaites

Penelope Mary Thwaites AM. is a concert pianist and composer, recording artist and editor. Born in the United Kingdom of Australian parents, she is a citizen of both countries.

Biography

She grew up in Melbourne, Australia, attending Tintern Church of England Girls Grammar School and taking a degree in Music from Melbourne University (B.Mus Hons 1966), where she won the Ormond Exhibition and was placed first in her final year. Following a period of working internationally as musical director and composer of music for the theatre, she continued orchestration studies in London with William L Reed and piano studies with the Swiss pianist Albert Ferber, a pupil of Walter Gieseking and who often played for Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Her debut at London’s Wigmore Hall in 1974, sponsored by the Stanley Lewis Concerts Society, was followed by concerts and broadcasts in the UK and tours world-wide, both as solo recitalist and concerto soloist. In 1993, she appeared in the Australia Day Gala at the Royal Opera House in the presence of the Prince of Wales.

She has appeared with orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Concert Orchestra and leading orchestras in Australia, Europe and America.^[1]

Repertoire and recordings

Her concert repertoire encompasses a wide range of classical composers, some represented on her CD 'Travelling Between Worlds' (LIR). Since 1975 she has made a point of including music by Australian composers such as Malcolm Williamson, Margaret Sutherland, Arthur Benjamin, Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Jennifer Fowler, Alison Bauld, David Worrall and many more, whether in solo recitals, concertos and chamber works. Her pioneering LP 'Australian Piano Music' (Discourses1980) was broadcast worldwide as something of a novelty at the time.

Penelope Thwaites found a special affinity with the music of Melbourne-born pianist and composer Percy Grainger. She has now recorded more than 250 tracks of his music for – first - Pearl records (the four-hand repertoire with John Lavender), solo discs for Unicorn Kanchana and Regis, and most notably as a featured solo, chamber and orchestral artist on eight of Chandos Records’ 20-CD Grainger Edition.^[1]

Other activities

Her lectures and broadcasts on the composer and detailed research into his life and work led to her editing The New Percy Grainger Companion (Boydell & Brewer 2010).^[2] She was Artistic Director for two major Grainger Festivals in London (St John’s Smith Square in 1998 ^[3] and a four-day celebration at King’s Place in 2011 – 50 years since Grainger’s death.^[4]

Her interest in promoting Australian composition led to her founding and chairing the international Performing Australian Music Competition which took place in London in 2001 and 2008, attracting young musicians from 20 countries who chose and performed music of 80 Australian composers. The competition still awaits a long-term sponsor.^[5]

In July 2013 she became Chairman of the Order of Australia Association UK/Europe.

Composing work

In the same year that she gave her second Wigmore Hall recital (1976), her musical (with Alan Thornhill) Ride! Ride! (based on an incident in the life of John Wesley) premiered at the Westminster Theatre in London's West End, following a nation-wide tour.^[6] The musical has had more than 40 productions since then – both amateur and professional - and a concert version was recorded in 1999 on the Somm label. Thwaites's compositions include songs, organ and piano works and ballet music. She is published by Bardic Edition, whose catalogue is now distributed under the Schott Music imprint.^[7]

Recognition

Penelope received the International Grainger Society’s Medallion in 1992 ^[8] and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2001 "for service to music through the performance and promotion of Australian compositions in the United Kingdom and internationally".^[9][10] She is a Steinway Artist ^[11] and a represented composer with the Australian Music Centre".^[12]

Personal life

In 1981 she married Edward Jackson CBE (1922-2009), a barrister, cricketer and coach, with whom she had a son and a daughter.^[13][14]

References

External links

• "International Percy Grainger Society"
• "Chandos Records"
• "Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - University of Melbourne"
• "Bardic Edition"
• "Somm Recordings"
• "Interview with Mike Lowe for ‘For a Change’"