Event overview
Rex Lawson is the leading concert pianolist in the world. His career spans nearly four decades, and he has performed widely in Europe and North America, collaborating with Pierre Boulez, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Simon Rattle and many other eminent musicians.
In 1984 Rex Lawson jointly founded the Pianola Institute with Denis Hall, and he regularly contributes to its Pianola Journal. In 1987 he was awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship, and spent three months at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel, researching and documenting Stravinsky's work with the player piano.
Rex Lawson has given the world premieres of many pianola compositions, including Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps and Les Noces (1919), and even John Cage's 4'33", on three blank music rolls. He is well represented on CD, with recordings of Sacre, Petrouchka, Les Noces, George Antheil's Ballet Macanique, and a wide range of British music all currently in the catalogues. In 2004 he gave the first performance of Nancarrow Concerto with Ensemble Modern at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne, transformed by the British composer, Paul Usher, from the incomplete work written for him by his late friend, the composer Conlon Nancarrow. His favourite historical pianist is Sergei Rachmaninov, and he has twice performed the Third Piano Concerto with orchestra, with music rolls of his own creation.
Rex Lawson lives in Hither Green, with about 11,500 music rolls, a computer-operated perforating machine, and a remarkably understanding wife.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 28 Oct 2010 | 6:00pm - 8:30pm |
Accessibility
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