Peter Donohoe

Peter Donohoe CBE (born 18 June 1953) is an English pianist. Born in Manchester, he studied at Chetham's School of Music and also at the Royal Northern College of Music with Derek Wyndham, and then with Yvonne Loriod in Paris. For a period he was engaged by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as an extra percussionist (having played with them in 1974 as one of the piano duettists in Camille Saint-Saëns' Organ Symphony). It was as a pianist that he came to public attention, when he was awarded joint-second prize in the 1982 International Tchaikovsky Competition with Vladimir Ovchinnikov (no first prize was awarded that year). In 1992 he almost severed fingers on his left hand in a Cincinnati hotel window, but after surgery there was no long term effect on his playing. The link with the CBSO brought about his performance in 2002 at Simon Rattle's inaugural concert as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Rattle was the CBSO's conductor throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s). Donohoe's repertoire is extraordinarily broad. Donohoe estimates his concerto repertoire alone includes about 160 works, and it embraces romantic and modern compositions, including mainstream concertos by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, works by Olivier Messiaen, and lesser-known piano concertos such as those by Henry Litolff (which he has recorded for Hyperion Records), Ferruccio Busoni, Dominic Muldowney and mid-twentieth century British composers including Arthur Bliss (of which he is recording a series for Naxos Records). He also plays a wide range of solo works (including the piano sonatas of Michael Tippett which he has broadcast for the BBC) and chamber music. Donohoe was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours.[1]