Malcolm Troup

Malcolm Troup, world-renowned performer and pedagogue was born in Toronto, Canada. At the age of nine he began to compose, earning a scholarship to the Royal Conservatory in Toronto where he studied, alongside Glenn Gould, with Alberto Guerrero. His debut as soloist with orchestra at the age of seventeen marked the beginning of a series of successful engagements which finally brought him to the attention of Walter Gieseking, under whom he completed his studies.

In London he was awarded the Commonwealth Medal by Harriet Cohen, and has been a frequent soloist for the BBC. His concert tours have taken him throughout Eastern and Western Europe, North and South America, China, Hong Kong and Australia. He has recorded for RCA Victor and his recording of Messiaen’s Vingt Régards sur l’Enfant-Jésus was described by the Financial Times of London as “notably perceptive about all its salient musical features and executed with splendid panache.”

In London, he has played in the Royal Festival Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra and with the Hallé Orchestra. He was appointed Director of Music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1970, and in 1975 he moved to City University where he created their Department of Music and where, in 1980, he was given a personal Chair. In November 2985, he inaugurated the new concert hall of Memorial University of Newfoundland’s School of Music and was honored with the degree of Doctor of Laws.

Festivals at which he has performed include Prague Spring, Berlin, York, Belfast, Montreal Expo, CBC Toronto, Halifax, Commonwealth Arts Festival London and, in 1992, the 48th Cheltenham International Festival as well as appearing as soloist with the following orchestras: Berliner-Sinfonie (under Kurt Masur), Hamburg, Bucharest, Warsaw, Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Harmonien, Toronto, Winnipeg, Sao Paulo, Lima and Santiago. Following performances in 1998 as part of the American Liszt Society’s Festival at McMaster University in Eastern Canada, he was awarded the Society’s 1998 LISZT MEDAL. On his return to London, he was made Master of the Worshipful Company of Musicians.

Apart from performing and teaching, he is also Chairman of the European Council of the European Piano Teachers Association, Chairman of the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe, President of the Oxford International Piano Festival, Vice-President of the London International Piano Competition, Trustee of the Jewish Music Institute, Editor of the Piano Journal, Governor of the Music Therapy Charity and Professor Emeritus of City University London. Over the years, he has been much in demand on the juries of international piano competitions such as the Chopin Competition of Australia, CBC National Talent Competition Ottawa, Dvorak Competition in the Czech Republic, Rome in 1997 and 2002, Zagreb, Reykjavik, Cyprus and the First “Claudio Arrau” International Piano Competition held in Chillan, Chile in June 2003. As an author, his latest publication is the chapter on “The Piano” which he co-authored with Richard Parncutt, editor of The Science and Psychology of Music Performance (Oxford University Press, New York 2002).

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