Simon Tedeschi

Simon Tedeschi (born 1 May 1981) is a Boston-based classical pianist from Australia.

Life and career

Simon Tedeschi was born in Sydney to Mark Tedeschi QC, the New South Wales Crown Prosecutor and a prominent photographer and Vivienne Tedeschi, who is the daughter of a Polish Holocaust survivor, Lucy Gershwin, believed to be distantly related to George Gershwin.

His headmaster at St Andrew's Cathedral School in Sydney dissuaded him from taking part in sports such as cricket, for fear of damaging his hands, and he was given a room to pursue his piano playing instead.

• 2000
  • Grieg's Piano Concerto with the QSO
  • recitals for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO),
  • a Scriabin program for the Adelaide Festival
  • an extensive recital tour for Musica Viva Australia
  • guest appearances with the harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler on his Australian tour
  • performed for the Dalai Lama at his fund-raising concert in London
  • Edinburgh Festival and St John's, Smith Square – performances which moved Larry Adler to comment that "...he is one of the finest Gershwin exponents I have seen...reminds me of the young Rachmaninoff...".

• 2001
  • Sydney Symphony and Sydney Youth Orchestra
  • toured extensively for Musica Viva Australia with guitarist Slava Grigoryan

• 2002
  • recitals and concertos in New York, Philadelphia, London, Edinburgh, Wales and a 5-concert tour of Mexico as part of the Cervantino Festival.

• 2003
  • Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue at the Premier of New South Wales's Australia Day Concert at Darling Harbour, Sydney
  • a recital with Slava Grigoryan.

• 2004
  • toured for Musica Viva, and travelled to Japan for performances with Leigh Warren & Dancers.

• 2005
  • Italy
  • the opening recital for the Australian Pavilion at the Expo 2005 in Nagoya, Japan and later invited back to perform in Expo Hall for International Marine Day
  • a performance at the invitation of the Governor of New South Wales for the Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark
  • November 2005, soloist with the Cyprus State Orchestra for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2005 (CHOGM) in Malta
  • recitals all over Australia, including performances with award-winning jazz pianist Kevin Hunt and touring with renowned Brazilian flautist Tadeu Coelho and cellist Trish O'Brien.

• 2006
  • New York, North Carolina, San Francisco (with Roger Woodward) Philadelphia and New Mexico
  • 2006 International Ginastera Festival with a recital in St Johns, Piccadilly, London.
  • tours with jazz pianist Kevin Hunt.

• Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO)
• Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27, K. 595 with the Sydney Symphony.

Awards and recognition

Tedeschi has won numerous prizes and piano scholarships. In 1994, he entered his first International Piano competition in Italy. There he was voted the Most Outstanding Performer in all Youth Sections as well as winning the Open Age Concerto Section, two Piano sections and his age section. As a result of this competition, he toured the United States in 1995, performing in New York, North Carolina and Texas. That same year, he had a private audience with Luciano Pavarotti and performed for him.

In 1998, Tedeschi was named the Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year, performing Alberto Ginastera's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jun Maerkl at the Melbourne Concert Hall. He was the recipient of a Queen's Trust Overseas Study Award of $10,000, also presented at the Young Performers Awards in Melbourne.

In 2001 he was awarded the Centenary of Federation Medal by the Governor-General of Australia.

In February 2002 Tedeschi won the keyboard section of the Royal Overseas League Music Competition in London, which is open to Commonwealth musicians under the age of 28.

Media appearances

Simon Tedeschi performed the hand double for actor Alex Rafalowicz (David Helfgott as a child) in the 1996 Australian film, Shine.

He was the subject of an ABC TV documentary, "Australian Story", screened nationally on 5 August 1999.

He and his Polish-born grandmother, who died during the filming, were featured in an SBS TV documentary "The Two of Us" on 23 August 2006.

Tedeschi has been in a number of episodes of the ABC TV music quiz show, "Spicks and Specks".

Recordings

Tedeschi signed a recording deal with Sony Music Entertainment Australia under the Sony Classical label. His debut CD was released in May 2000. He was subsequently nominated for an MO Award as Classical Performer of the Year and for an ARIA award – Classical Record of the Year.

In 2003 he recorded Leroy Anderson's Piano Concerto with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Simon has recorded Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto and Grieg's Piano Concerto with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Richard Bonynge, which was released in September 2005. Richard Bonynge commented: "an extraordinary young pianist...I felt a true musical togetherness with Simon – his sensitivity, his passion and his superb technique."

External links

• Simon Tedeschi's Official Site
• Simon Tedeschi (www.pianosociety.com; retrieved 3 February 2010)
• Simon Tedeschi – Dame Joan Sutherland Fund Recipient 2008 (54kb pdf; retrieved 3 February 2010)