A Personal Note from Clive Swansbourne

I know from experience how valuable spoken illustrated guides to music can be. Many of my most memorable insights into music as a student came from talks by Dennis Mathews, Anthony Hopkins (musicologist, not actor!), Vernon Handley, and others. Leonard Bernstein will always remain an important pioneer in the field of live explanation with his wonderful and groundbreaking Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. More recently the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas has carried on the tradition with the San Francisco Symphony, and in general the practice of offering some spoken introductions at concerts and recitals has taken hold in modern concert life, to the appreciation of most audience members.

It often surprises me at my own recitals how often people come up to me and thank me for the few words of introduction before the performance of a work, and how much this helped them put the piece in context and allow them to listen to it with fresh ears, or with more prepared ones.

What The Enlightened Listener seeks to do is offer a data base of stimulating talks which can be accessed all the time, and not just on concert occasions.

"Clive Swansbourne displayed complete artistic and technical sovereignty."

(Frankfurt, Neue Presse)

 

"Swansbourne’s playing was like a pool in a forest, of great mystery and beauty."

(Philadelphia Inquirer)

Clive Swansbourne was born in England and educated at the Royal College of Music in London, and Yale School of Music where he received his Doctorate studying with Ward Davenny and Claude Frank.

He has toured widely throughout the United States and has given critically acclaimed performances in most of the big cities and almost all the states. He has also played in Europe (Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium), and in Canada. He has appeared often on NPR (including “Performance Today”) and on the BBC in England. He was a major prizewinner in the Maryland International Piano Competition and Concerts Atlantique International Music Competition.

In recent years he has given the complete cycle of Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas four times, including in the Rothko Chapel, Houston, in 2005. Other performances have included the Bach Goldberg Variations for the Philadelphia Bach Society, the four Sonatas of Michael Tippett for the Cheltenham International Festival and Beethoven Emperor Concerto with the Brazos Valley Symphony.

He has given master classes and clinics at dozens of colleges and universities from coast to coast. He has an extensive performing repertoire both as soloist and collaborative pianist.

After teaching in universities for eighteen years, he now lives in Houston, where he teaches, performs and records. In 2008 he performed a five-recital series of all of Schubert’s later works at the Rothko Chapel, and has recorded them on CD for the Swan Records Enlightened Listener series.

For more information about Clive and his upcoming events, please visit his artist website.