Geoffrey Parsons (pianist)
Encyclopedia
Geoffrey Penwill Parsons AO OBE (15 June 192926 January 1995) was an Australia
n pianist
, most particularly notable as an accompanist to singers and instrumentalists. After the retirement of Gerald Moore
, he was generally considered the world's finest and most sympathetic accompanist of lied
er singers, "elevating the role of the accompanist to new heights with his musicality, authority and quiet strength of playing".
suburb of Ashfield
, to a working class family. He had two older brothers and a large extended family. He originally intended to study architecture, but his love of music prevailed. He studied with Winifred Burston
(a student of Ferruccio Busoni
) at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music
from 1941 to 1948, (where a family friend, George Vern Barnett
, was on the piano staff) and under the general tutelage of Eugene Goossens
. He won the ABC
's Instrumental and Vocal Competition in 1947 with a performance of Brahms
's Piano Concerto No. 2
. He toured Australia with Essie Ackland in 1948, and in 1950 travelled to Britain to perform with bass baritone Peter Dawson. The six-concert tour completed, Parsons remained in London, earning a living initially as a cocktail lounge pianist. This led to an engagement with the popular duettists Anne Ziegler
and Webster Booth
, and permanent residence in Britain.
A performance of Schubert
's Winterreise
with Gerhard Hüsch
in his first London concert since World War II led to Parsons being invited to Munich
to be Hüsch's permanent accompanist, where they worked together almost daily. There he studied with Friedrich Wührer
in 1956. In 1961, he made his first appearance with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
at the Royal Festival Hall
at the invitation of Walter Legge
, and later became her principal accompanist. The list of singers with whom he worked includes Dame Joan Hammond
, Victoria de los Ángeles
, Nicolai Gedda
, Rita Streich
, Birgit Nilsson
, Hans Hotter
, Hugues Cuénod
, Norman Bailey, and Janet Baker
.
Increasingly Parsons began to partner younger singers such as Thomas Hampson, Olaf Bär
, Barbara Bonney
, Thomas Allen, Jessye Norman
and Bryn Terfel
. Some of these younger artists such as Susan Kessler, Yvonne Kenny
, Felicity Lott
and Ann Murray
were also pupils of Parsons's long-time life partner, the singer Erich Vietheer.
Geoffrey Parsons also accompanied some of the world's greatest instrumentalists, including Nathan Milstein
, Ruggiero Ricci
, Paul Tortelier
, Wanda Wiłkomirska and Ida Haendel
. Artists whom he partnered quickly appreciated his exemplary standards of musicianship, and a level of pianistic command that was totally new to the accompanist's role. This led to his increasing recognition as the ideal accompanist in a career that saw him perform in over 40 countries in six continents, including all the major international music festivals. He also recorded widely throughout his career, leaving a vast output. He also partnered other pianists such as Leslie Howard
, for example in works by Franz Liszt
for two pianos, in which neither pianist is subordinate to the other.
His partnership with Australia was an essential part of his entire career and he became the means for bringing some of the world’s most important singers and instrumentalists to his native country. He toured Australia 31 times between 1957 and 1993.
In 1967 and 1969, he appeared as one of four harpsichord
ists, the others being Eileen Joyce
, Simon Preston
, George Malcolm
(1967), and Raymond Leppard
(1969), in concerts with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Neville Marriner
. In 1969, he appeared with Eileen Joyce in a two-piano recital at Australia House, London.
In 1973 he accompanied Birgit Nilsson
in the first lieder recital at the Sydney Opera House
. He also accompanied Wanda Wiłkomirska in the first violin and piano recital in that venue. During his returns to Australia, he conducted several masterclasses at his alma mater
, now the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
On 29 November 1981, he again appeared with Eileen Joyce, in a fund-raising concert at the Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden
. Although not intended as such, this proved to be the last time Eileen Joyce ever played in public.
His last performance in Australia was with Olaf Bär in Winterreise in the University of Melbourne’s Melba Hall in 1993.
He was the Prince Consort Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music
and was named a Fellow of the College (FRCM) in 1987.
He became an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music
in 1975, and the Guildhall School of Music
in 1983. He was named the Royal Philharmonic Society
’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 1992.
He was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire
in 1977 and an Officer (AO) of the Order of Australia
in 1990.
Geoffrey Parsons shared his life and his home with the singer and teacher Erich Vietheer, who died around 2003 (there was an Eric Vietheer Memorial Concert on 9 November of that year). Parsons lived his life as a Christian
, committed to the Church of England
. His untimely and painful death was caused by cancer
, however he continued his career for as long as possible. On his retirement he was given his own gala concert at the Metropolitan Opera
, New York
. He died in London
, survived by his two elder brothers.
His portrait, by Michael Shannon, hangs in the National Portrait Gallery
in Old Parliament House, Canberra
. His photographic portrait by Max Dupain
is held by the National Archives of Australia
.
In recent years, the prize has received the support of the Elder Conservatorium
, University of Adelaide
, which has given the prize an added level of prestige and public profile. In presenting the Geoffrey Parsons Award the Accompanists’ Guild continues to raise the public’s awareness of the importance of the skills of the professional accompanist and has assisted many emerging accompanists to establish their professional careers.
2005, the tenth anniversary of Geoffrey Parsons' death, the Trust presented the Geoffrey Parsons 10th Anniversary Memorial Concert at London’s Wigmore Hall
. Yvonne Kenny, Sir Thomas Allen, and Graham Johnson all provided their services free of charge.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n pianist
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, most particularly notable as an accompanist to singers and instrumentalists. After the retirement of Gerald Moore
Gerald Moore
Gerald Moore CBE was an English pianist best known for his career as one of the most in-demand accompanists of his day, accompanying many of the world's most famous musicians...
, he was generally considered the world's finest and most sympathetic accompanist of lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
er singers, "elevating the role of the accompanist to new heights with his musicality, authority and quiet strength of playing".
Biography
Geoffrey Parsons was born in the SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
suburb of Ashfield
Ashfield
Ashfield is a local government district in western Nottinghamshire, England. According to the 2001 UK census, it has a population of 111,387. The district is mostly urban, with a tradition of coal mining. There are three towns in the district; the largest being Sutton-in-Ashfield...
, to a working class family. He had two older brothers and a large extended family. He originally intended to study architecture, but his love of music prevailed. He studied with Winifred Burston
Winifred Burston
Winifred Charlotte Hillier Crosse Burston was an Australian pianist and teacher.She was born near Caboolture, Queensland, of English-born parents, raised in Brisbane, and taught by her mother, an accomplished pianist. She studied first in Berlin from 1908, under Theodore Bohlmann...
(a student of Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
) at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Australia...
from 1941 to 1948, (where a family friend, George Vern Barnett
George Vern Barnett
George Vern Barnett was an Australian organist, choir master and accompanist. He was an important figure in the musical and cultural life of Sydney for many years in the early twentieth century.-Early life and career:...
, was on the piano staff) and under the general tutelage of Eugene Goossens
Eugène Aynsley Goossens
Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens was an English conductor and composer.-Biography:He was born in Camden Town, London, the son of the Belgian conductor and violinist Eugène Goossens and the grandson of the conductor Eugène Goossens...
. He won the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
's Instrumental and Vocal Competition in 1947 with a performance of Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
's Piano Concerto No. 2
Piano Concerto No. 2 (Brahms)
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83 by Johannes Brahms is a composition for solo piano with orchestral accompaniment. It is separated by a gap of 22 years from the composer's first piano concerto. Brahms began work on the piece in 1878 and completed it in 1881 while in Pressbaum near...
. He toured Australia with Essie Ackland in 1948, and in 1950 travelled to Britain to perform with bass baritone Peter Dawson. The six-concert tour completed, Parsons remained in London, earning a living initially as a cocktail lounge pianist. This led to an engagement with the popular duettists Anne Ziegler
Anne Ziegler
Anne Ziegler was an English singer, known for her light operatic duets with her husband Webster Booth. The pair were known as the "Sweethearts in Song" and were among the most famous and popular British musical acts of the 1940s.-Life and career:She was born Irené Frances Eastwood in the Sefton...
and Webster Booth
Webster Booth
Leslie Webster Booth , better known by his stage name, Webster Booth, was a British tenor. He is largely remembered today as the duettist partner of Anne Ziegler, but he was also one of the finest British tenors of his generation and was a distinguished oratorio soloist.He was a chorister at...
, and permanent residence in Britain.
A performance of Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Winterreise
Winterreise
Winterreise is a song cycle for voice and piano by Franz Schubert , a setting of 24 poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is the second of Schubert's two great song cycles on Müller's poems, the earlier being Die schöne Müllerin...
with Gerhard Hüsch
Gerhard Hüsch
Gerhard Heinrich Wilhelm Fritz Hüsch was one of the most important German singers of modern times. A lyric baritone, he specialized in Lieder but also sang, to a lesser extent, German and Italian opera.-Career:...
in his first London concert since World War II led to Parsons being invited to Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
to be Hüsch's permanent accompanist, where they worked together almost daily. There he studied with Friedrich Wührer
Friedrich Wührer
Friedrich Wührer was an Austrian-German pianist and piano pedagogue. He was a close associate and advocate of composer Franz Schmidt, whose music he edited and, in the case of the works for left hand alone, revised for performance with two hands; he was also a champion of the Second Viennese...
in 1956. In 1961, he made his first appearance with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, DBE was a German-born Austrian/British soprano opera singer and recitalist. She was among the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century, much admired for her performances of Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, and Wolf.-Early life:Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike...
at the Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
at the invitation of Walter Legge
Walter Legge
Harry Walter Legge was an influential English classical record producer, most notably for EMI. His recordings include many sets later regarded as classics and reissued by EMI as "Great Recordings of the Century". He worked in the recording industry from 1927, combining this with the post of junior...
, and later became her principal accompanist. The list of singers with whom he worked includes Dame Joan Hammond
Joan Hammond
Dame Joan Hilda Hood Hammond, DBE, CMG was an Australian operatic soprano, singing coach and champion golfer.- Early life :...
, Victoria de los Ángeles
Victoria de los Ángeles
Victoria de los Ángeles was a Spanish Catalan operatic soprano and recitalist whose career began in the early 1940s and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. Her obituary in The Times noted that she must be counted “among the finest singers of the second half...
, Nicolai Gedda
Nicolai Gedda
Nicolai Gedda is a Swedish operatic tenor. Having made some two hundred recordings, Gedda is said to be the most widely recorded tenor in history...
, Rita Streich
Rita Streich
Rita Streich , was one of the most admired and recorded sopranos of the post-war period.Rita Streich was born in Barnaul in Russia, and moved to Germany with her parents during her childhood. She grew up bilingual, something that was extremely helpful during her later career...
, Birgit Nilsson
Birgit Nilsson
right|thumb|Nilsson in 1948.Birgit Nilsson was a celebrated Swedish dramatic soprano who specialized in operatic and symphonic works...
, Hans Hotter
Hans Hotter
Hans Hotter was a German operatic bass-baritone, admired internationally after World War II for the power, beauty, and intelligence of his singing, especially in Wagner operas. He was extremely tall and his appearance was striking because of his high, narrow face, wide mouth, and big, aquiline nose...
, Hugues Cuénod
Hugues Cuénod
Hugues-Adhémar Cuénod was a Swiss tenor known for his performances in opera, operetta, both traditional and musical theatre, and on the concert stage, where he was particularly known for his light, romantic and expressive interpretation of mélodie...
, Norman Bailey, and Janet Baker
Janet Baker
Dame Janet Abbott Baker, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer.She was particularly closely associated with baroque and early Italian opera and the works of Benjamin Britten...
.
Increasingly Parsons began to partner younger singers such as Thomas Hampson, Olaf Bär
Olaf Bär
Olaf Bär is a German operatic baritone.- Life :Bär received his musical training in his home city of Dresden, studying at the city's Hochschule für Musik. His career has concentrated on lieder and on the lyric baritone roles of the operatic repertoire...
, Barbara Bonney
Barbara Bonney
-Early life:Bonney was born in Montclair, New Jersey. As a child she studied piano and cello. When Bonney was 13 her family moved to Maine, where she became part of the Portland Youth Orchestra as a cellist...
, Thomas Allen, Jessye Norman
Jessye Norman
Jessye Norman is an American opera singer. Norman is a well-known contemporary opera singer and recitalist, and is one of the highest paid performers in classical music...
and Bryn Terfel
Bryn Terfel
Bryn Terfel Jones CBE is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer. Terfel was initially associated with the roles of Mozart, particularly Figaro and Leporello, but has subsequently shifted his attention to heavier roles, especially those by Wagner....
. Some of these younger artists such as Susan Kessler, Yvonne Kenny
Yvonne Kenny
Yvonne Kenny AM is an Australian soprano, particularly associated with Handel and Mozart roles.Born in Sydney, she first studied at the University of Sydney in science, hoping to become a biochemist, but decided to pursue a career in music instead...
, Felicity Lott
Felicity Lott
Dame Felicity Ann Emwhyla Lott, DBE, FRCM is an English soprano.-Education:From her earliest years she was musical, having started studying piano at age 5. She also played violin and began singing lessons at 12. She is an alumna of Royal Holloway, University of London, obtaining a BA in French and...
and Ann Murray
Ann Murray
Ann Murray DBE is an Irish mezzo-soprano. She was born on 27 August 1949, in Dublin. She studied with Frederic Cox at the Royal Manchester College of Music and made her stage debut as Alcestis in Christoph Willibald Gluck's Alceste in 1974...
were also pupils of Parsons's long-time life partner, the singer Erich Vietheer.
Geoffrey Parsons also accompanied some of the world's greatest instrumentalists, including Nathan Milstein
Nathan Milstein
Nathan Mironovich Milstein was a Russian-born American virtuoso violinist.Widely considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, Milstein was known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and for works from the Romantic period...
, Ruggiero Ricci
Ruggiero Ricci
Ruggiero Ricci is an Italian-American violinist known for performances and recordings of the works of Paganini. He was born in San Bruno, California. Ricci's brother was cellist and his sister Emma played violin with the New York Metropolitan Opera.He is the son of Italian immigrants. His...
, Paul Tortelier
Paul Tortelier
Paul Tortelier was a French cellist and composer.Tortelier was born in Paris, the son of a cabinet maker with Breton roots. He was encouraged to play the cello by his father Joseph and mother Marguerite , and at 12 he entered the Paris Conservatoire. He studied the cello there with Gérard Hekking...
, Wanda Wiłkomirska and Ida Haendel
Ida Haendel
Ida Haendel, CBE is a British violinist of Polish birth.- Career :Ida Haendel was born in Chełm, a small city in Eastern Poland. She took up the violin at the age of three and as a seven-year-old was admitted at the Warsaw Conservatory. She later studied with Carl Flesch and George Enescu in Paris...
. Artists whom he partnered quickly appreciated his exemplary standards of musicianship, and a level of pianistic command that was totally new to the accompanist's role. This led to his increasing recognition as the ideal accompanist in a career that saw him perform in over 40 countries in six continents, including all the major international music festivals. He also recorded widely throughout his career, leaving a vast output. He also partnered other pianists such as Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard (musician)
Leslie Howard AM is an Australian pianist and composer. He is best known for being the only pianist to have recorded the complete solo piano works of Franz Liszt, a project which included more than 300 premiere recordings...
, for example in works by Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
for two pianos, in which neither pianist is subordinate to the other.
His partnership with Australia was an essential part of his entire career and he became the means for bringing some of the world’s most important singers and instrumentalists to his native country. He toured Australia 31 times between 1957 and 1993.
In 1967 and 1969, he appeared as one of four harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
ists, the others being Eileen Joyce
Eileen Joyce
Eileen Alannah Joyce CMG was an Australian pianist whose career spanned more than 30 years. She lived in England in her adult years....
, Simon Preston
Simon Preston
Simon John Preston CBE is an English organist, conductor, and composer.- Early life :He attended the Canford School in Wimborne in Dorset. Originally a chorister at King's College, Cambridge, he studied the organ with C. H...
, George Malcolm
George Malcolm (musician)
George Malcolm CBE was an English harpsichordist and conductor.Malcolm's first instrument was the piano, and his first teacher was a nun who recognised his talent and recommended him to the Royal College of Music. Malcolm went on to study at Balliol College, Oxford...
(1967), and Raymond Leppard
Raymond Leppard
Raymond "Def" Leppard, CBE is a British conductor and harpsichordist.He was born in London and grew up in Bath, where he was educated at the City of Bath Boys' School, now known as the Beechen Cliff School...
(1969), in concerts with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Neville Marriner
Neville Marriner
Sir Neville Marriner is an English conductor and violinist.-Biography:Marriner was born in Lincoln and studied at the Royal College of Music and the Paris Conservatoire. He played the violin in the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Martin String Quartet and London Symphony Orchestra, playing with the...
. In 1969, he appeared with Eileen Joyce in a two-piano recital at Australia House, London.
In 1973 he accompanied Birgit Nilsson
Birgit Nilsson
right|thumb|Nilsson in 1948.Birgit Nilsson was a celebrated Swedish dramatic soprano who specialized in operatic and symphonic works...
in the first lieder recital at the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
. He also accompanied Wanda Wiłkomirska in the first violin and piano recital in that venue. During his returns to Australia, he conducted several masterclasses at his alma mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
, now the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
On 29 November 1981, he again appeared with Eileen Joyce, in a fund-raising concert at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
. Although not intended as such, this proved to be the last time Eileen Joyce ever played in public.
His last performance in Australia was with Olaf Bär in Winterreise in the University of Melbourne’s Melba Hall in 1993.
He was the Prince Consort Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
and was named a Fellow of the College (FRCM) in 1987.
He became an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
in 1975, and the Guildhall School of Music
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
in 1983. He was named the Royal Philharmonic Society
Royal Philharmonic Society
The Royal Philharmonic Society is a British music society, formed in 1813. It was originally formed in London to promote performances of instrumental music there. Many distinguished composers and performers have taken part in its concerts...
’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 1992.
He was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1977 and an Officer (AO) of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
in 1990.
Geoffrey Parsons shared his life and his home with the singer and teacher Erich Vietheer, who died around 2003 (there was an Eric Vietheer Memorial Concert on 9 November of that year). Parsons lived his life as a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
, committed to the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
. His untimely and painful death was caused by cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, however he continued his career for as long as possible. On his retirement he was given his own gala concert at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He died in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, survived by his two elder brothers.
His portrait, by Michael Shannon, hangs in the National Portrait Gallery
National Portrait Gallery (Australia)
The National Portrait Gallery of Australia is a collection of portraits of prominent Australians that are important in their field of endeavour or whose life sets them apart as an individual of long-term public interest...
in Old Parliament House, Canberra
Old Parliament House, Canberra
Old Parliament House, known formerly as the Provisional Parliament House, was the house of the Parliament of Australia from 1927 to 1988. The building began operation on 9 May 1927 as a temporary base for the Commonwealth Parliament after its relocation from Melbourne to the new capital, Canberra,...
. His photographic portrait by Max Dupain
Max Dupain
Maxwell Spencer Dupain AC was a renowned Australian modernist photographer.-Early life:Dupain received his first camera as a gift in 1924, spurring his interest in photography He later joined the Photographic Society of NSW, and when he left school, he worked for Cecil Bostock in Sydney.-Early...
is held by the National Archives of Australia
National Archives of Australia
The National Archives of Australia is a body established by the Government of Australia for the purpose of preserving Commonwealth Government records. It is an Executive Agency of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and reports to the Cabinet Secretary, Senator Joe Ludwig.The national...
.
Geoffrey Parsons Award
In 1995, following Parsons’ death, the Geoffrey Parsons Award was named in his memory by the Accompanists' Guild of South Australia, of which Parsons was the founding international patron. The award is one of the few Australian prizes to celebrate and encourage the profession of piano accompaniment. The Geoffrey Parsons Award is an annual prize, originally with a cash-pool of $2,500. To mark the 25th anniversary of the Guild, in 2008 this was increased to $6,000.In recent years, the prize has received the support of the Elder Conservatorium
Elder Conservatorium
The Elder Conservatorium of Music is Australia's senior academy of music and one of the country's most distinguished institutions for comprehensive education, professional training, and research in music...
, University of Adelaide
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...
, which has given the prize an added level of prestige and public profile. In presenting the Geoffrey Parsons Award the Accompanists’ Guild continues to raise the public’s awareness of the importance of the skills of the professional accompanist and has assisted many emerging accompanists to establish their professional careers.
Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust
The Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust exists to encourage the art of the accompanist amongst young pianists. On Australia DayAustralia Day
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia...
2005, the tenth anniversary of Geoffrey Parsons' death, the Trust presented the Geoffrey Parsons 10th Anniversary Memorial Concert at London’s Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
. Yvonne Kenny, Sir Thomas Allen, and Graham Johnson all provided their services free of charge.
Sources
- The Accompanists’ Guild of South Australia
- The Accompanists’ Guild of South Australia: About Geoffrey Parsons
- The Accompanists’ Guild of South Australia: The Geoffrey Parsons Award – Previous Winners
- Live Performance Australia Hall of Fame
- Music Council of Australia: Geoffrey Parsons Among Friends
- National Portrait Gallery
- Allan and Unwin: Geoffrey Parsons – Among Friends
- The University of Sydney: Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Concert
- National Archives of Australia” Max Dupain on Assignment
- Seen and Heard International: Geoffrey Parsons 10th Anniversary Memorial Concert
- Answers.com
- Goliath: book review Geoffrey Parsons – Among Friends
- Franz Liszt: Fantasie und Fuge über den Choral Ad nos, ad salutarem undam, S624