User talk:RobGold43

Janusz Piotrowicz was born in England of Polish refugees. He began piano lessons aged two with his Mother, gave his first public recital aged five and made his Rome début aged seven in the presence of Pope John XXIII. His childhood involved extensive travel, enabling him to absorb the richness and diversity of European culture, and at every opportunity he would give a concert. The piano thus became for him a direct extension of his very being – a means of communication and expression on the most intimate of levels. His family imbued in him a knowledge of his cultural heritage – their own background, as survivors of the European Holocaust, providing another dimension to his childhood. It was therefore a fitting tribute to their own suffering when in 1994 he was invited to perform to 5,000 people at the Chopin Memorial in the Royal Łazienki Park, Warsaw, on the 50th Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.

Aged eleven, he was offered scholarships to the Warsaw Conservatoire, and Eton College - where he became the first Honorary Music Scholar in the history of the school. Tutored in the Heinrich Neuhaus tradition, and gifted with an innate and profound musical understanding far beyond his years, he made his mark at Eton with epic recital programmes, and was described as ‘a comet’ by his tutors. He also formed his own orchestra, initiating a personal discipline of conducting all rehearsals and concerts from memory.

Whilst a Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music, where he was awarded the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Medal for being the most distinguished student of his generation, he made his London recital début with the Brahms Paganini Variations and the Second and Third Sonatas of Chopin, performed Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto at Windsor Castle, staged cycles of the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas and Concertos in England, Poland and the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, and won the Nawrocki Prize for the most poetic interpreter in the Warsaw International Chopin Piano Competition.

He has toured in Denmark, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, and throughout the UK, receiving the highest tributes from critics for his qualities of poetry and sensitivity:

‘magical tonal mastery … a velvet touch’ Il Tempi, Rome

‘white hot intensity’ The West Australian

‘runs and roulades soft as pearls, rather than hard and bright like diamonds’ Faro de Vigo, Spain The Oxford Times wrote after his recital at All Souls College of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier and Liszt’s B minor Sonatas:

‘infinitely musicianly … alive to the constructional virtues, not less than the emotional content, keen understanding of the prophetic writing in this sonata … ability to penetrate into the vast landscape of Beethoven’s creation … infinite depth and breadth of expression … authoritative, magisterial’

These same characteristics are the essence of his work as a conductor: a "blazing intensity juxtaposed with acute sensitivity, tenderness and a rare spirituality" are the hallmarks of his performances.

He is founder and conductor of the Orchestra of the World (L'Orchestre du Monde). His Royal Albert Hall series has included performances of Bach's Mass in B minor, Dvorak's New World Symphony, Tchaikovsky 5 and Beethoven 5.

Other recent highlights include Tchaikovsky's Pathétique and Rachmaninov 2 with the Hallé, Mahler 1, Tchaikovsky 4 and Shostakovich 5 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Brahms 1 and 4, Shostakovich 10 and Sibelius 1 with the Orchestra of Opera North, and the complete Beethoven Symphony Cycle with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London.

Janusz Piotrowicz follows the philosophy of the Shaolin Temple in China through the rigorous discipline of Qi Gong and Gong Fu, and his many passions include the study of European history and heraldry, Mayan and Aztec culture, languages, law, comedy, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Who, and walking in the Salzkammergut, whose lakes and mountains were a source of inspiration for Schubert, Brahms and Mahler.