Eric Parkin (24 March 1924 – 3 February 2020) was an English pianist.[1]
Parkin was born in Stevenage and attended Alleyne's Grammar School there.[2] He studied at Trinity College of Music with the Anglo-French pianist Frank Laffitte and with George Oldroyd. He also studied conducting with Charles Kennedy Scott and composition with Henry Geehl.[3] He began working in the 1940s as a cocktail pianist at The May Fair Hotel, making his classical debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1948 with a recital of Beethoven and Chopin.[4]
Parkin quickly became a frequent broadcaster on BBC Radio.[5] Having met the composer John Ireland he made his Proms debut playing the Ireland Piano Concerto in 1953, with Malcolm Sargent and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.[6] Although his musical interests spanned the Classical and Romantic periods, he became best known for his recorded performances and recitals of 20th-century British music, including works by William Baines, Arnold Bax, William Blezard, Frank Bridge, Alan Bush, Geoffrey Bush, Peter Dickinson, David Gow, Kenneth Leighton, Billy Mayerl, E J Moeran and Richard Stoker. Later in life he increasingly recorded French and American repertoire, including Poulenc, Roussel, Barber and Copland.[3][7] He recorded more than 80 albums over his career from the early 1950s onwards, for Argo, Lyrita, Chandos, Priory and Unicorn.[8]
Parkin was a professor at Trinity College from 1945 to 1958 and from 1964 to 1967.[2] He then taught piano at Bulmershe College in Reading, Berkshire (later merged with Reading University). He lived with his partner Rees Morgans for 57 years at Greengates Cottage in Watlington, Oxon.[9] Parkin died on 3 February 2020, aged 95.
^Classical Music Daily
^ abWho's Who in Music, Fifth Edition (1969), p. 238
^ abBiography, Bach Cantatas
^Philip Scowcroft. Biography, Light Music Society
^Radio Times, Issue 1358, 23 October 1949, p. 20
^BBC Proms performance archive, 5 September, 1953
^Eric Parkin, Chandos Records
^Tribute by J. Martin Stafford, British Music Society
EricParkin (24 March 1924 – 3 February 2020) was an English pianist. Parkin was born in Stevenage and attended Alleyne's Grammar School there. He studied...
commemorate dance band leader Ambrose, who performed regularly at the hotel. EricParkin was a cocktail pianist there in the 1940s. In June 2019, the hotel joined...
Meyer (composer) Tom Misch (producer, composer, singer, guitarist) EricParkin (pianist) Margaret Price (soprano) Marcella Puppini (singer) A. R. Rahman...
wider revival of interest in Baines with a publication, two recitals by EricParkin and an exhibition at the 1972 Harrogate Festival. A biography, Goodnight...
principal French horn of the London Symphony Orchestra, 86 3 February – EricParkin, classical pianist, 95 1 February – Andy Gill, post-punk guitarist (Gang...
teacher until a year before his death. His students included Pete Moore, EricParkin, William Lovelock and Nicholas Temperley. He also became music editor...
interested in 12 tone music. The Piano Sonata, Op. 12, first performed by EricParkin at the Macnaghten Concerts in 1958 - came out of this period. But within...
on the EMI label), Pascal Rogé (Decca), Paul Crossley (CBS), EricParkin (Chandos). Éric Le Sage (RCA) and Olivier Cazal (Naxos). Integral sets of the...
American-born Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Incheon (1961–2002). EricParkin, 95, English pianist. Vilen Prokofyev, 18, Kazakh ice hockey player (Snezhnye...
Retrieved 2 May 2015. John Ireland / EricParkin: London Pieces at AllMusic. Retrieved 2 May 2015. EricParkin: London Pieces (3) at AllMusic. Retrieved...
Scottish journalist, broadcaster and television executive (Channel 4) EricParkin, pianist Victor Perkins, film critic and author of Film as Film (1972)...
National Library of Australia. Retrieved 21 May 2019. Cook, Nicholas; Clarke, Eric; Leech-Wilkinson, Daniel; Rink, John (2009). The Cambridge Companion to Recorded...
Retrieved 3 May 2015. John Ireland / EricParkin: The Darkened Valley at AllMusic. Retrieved 3 May 2015. EricParkin: The Darkened Valley at AllMusic. Retrieved...
demandingly advanced works, has been recorded by several artists (e.g. EricParkin, Peter Wallfisch, Margaret Fingerhut, Angela Brownridge, Stephen Hough)...
with the BBC Northern Orchestra under Clarence Raybould in 1952 and EricParkin with the BBC Northern Orchestra under Brian Priestman in 1972. During...
end of his life. The Piano Music of William Blezard (2001) played by EricParkin, in two volumes (Priory Records, 1999, 2003) Battersea Park Suite, on...
piano and orchestra (first public performance on 11. February 1961 with EricParkin (piano)) Article in the Polytechnic of North London University house...
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