Peter Donohoe
Pianist, conductor, and percussionist Peter Donohoe gained wide recognition for a silver medal at the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition. He went on to an international career that has involved conducting several small orchestras as well as performances and recordings as a pianist. His large recording catalog includes many albums of British music.
Donohoe was born in Manchester, England, on June 18, 1953. He attended the city's prestigious Chetham's School of Music where -- even though he was only 14 -- teachers urged him to audition at the Royal Manchester College of Music. He was accepted and studied with Derek Wyndham. Donohoe went on to the University of Leeds, studying with Alexander Goehr, but returned to the Royal Manchester College of Music and received degrees in piano and percussion there in 1976. For some time, he was active in both fields; he was the percussionist in a performance of Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps conducted by a still-teenaged Simon Rattle, and he appeared on percussion with various British orchestras as well as in rock bands. Finally, he decided to focus on piano, embarking on further study with Yvonne Loriod, Olivier Messiaen, and Charles Rosen, among others. After entering a series of competitions, he took the silver medal at the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Since then, he has had an ongoing bond with Russian audiences. In Britain, Donohoe made debuts at the Purcell Room in London and at Last Night of the Proms in 1979. He has since appeared with major orchestras all over Britain and Ireland, and he was featured at the BBC Proms for 17 years in a row. In 2002, he performed on piano at Rattle's debut performance with the Berlin Philharmonic. Donohoe also launched a conducting career, holding positions with the Northern Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Mill, and the Bath Philharmonia. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2010.
Donohoe is notable for the size and range of his recording catalog. Beginning with an album of Prokofiev piano sonatas for EMI Classics in 1987, he recorded a number of albums for that label and also for Hyperion, Chandos, and Warner Classics. In the 2000s decade, he was featured on a series of albums of British music on the Naxos label. Donohoe recorded for Somm and Signum Classics in the 2010s, and in 2021, he issued the fourth in a cycle of the piano sonatas of Mozart on Signum Classics.
© James Manheim /TiVo
Similar artists
-
Litolff: Concertos symphoniques Nos. 3 & 5 (Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto 26)
Peter Donohoe, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Litton
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Jul 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Musique pour deux pianos
Classical - Released by Naxos on 30 Oct 2006
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 3
Classical - Released by SOMM Recordings on 24 Jun 2016
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rawsthorne: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2
Peter Donohoe, Ulster Orchestra, Takuo Yuasa
Classical - Released by Naxos on 14 Jan 2003
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sergey Prokofiev : Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1
Solo Piano - Released by SOMM Recordings on 13 May 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bliss: Oboe Quintet / Piano Quartet / Viola Sonata
Chamber Music - Released by Naxos on 1 Jun 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Songs of Summer: Piano Solo, Vol. 1
Peter Donohoe, Peter Schmalfuss, Llyr Williams
Classical - Released by East Props Music - OMiP on 19 Aug 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt, Berg, Bartók & Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas
Classical - Released by Parlophone UK on 7 Feb 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15
Classical - Released by JSC Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga Musica on 10 Oct 1980
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Keyboard Sonata in D Major, Hob. XVI:51: I. Andante
Classical - Released by Signum Classics on 19 Oct 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2
Peter Donohoe, Raphael Wallfisch
Classical - Released by SOMM Recordings on 1 Aug 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Piano Concertos
Peter Donohoe, Northern Sinfonia
Classical - Released by Naxos on 1 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 37: III. Scherzo. Allegro giocoso
Chamber Music - Released by Signum Classics on 13 Nov 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Piano Quintet in E-Flat Major, Op. 44: I. Allegro brillante (Radio Edit)
Peter Donohoe, Sacconi Quartet
Classical - Released by Signum Records on 17 Apr 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Piano Quintet in E-Flat Major, Op. 44: III. Scherzo: Molto vivace (Radio Edit)
Peter Donohoe, Sacconi Quartet
Classical - Released by Signum Records on 3 Apr 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Albéniz: Iberia, T. 105, Book 1: II. El puerto
Solo Piano - Released by Chandos on 5 Apr 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Peter Donohoe Plays Granados & Albéniz
Solo Piano - To be released on 17 May 2024 by Chandos
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Quintet for Piano and String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 30 : II. Scherzo. Presto (Radio Edit)
Classical - Released by Signum Records on 20 Mar 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Six Pieces on One Theme, Op. 21: III. Impromptu. Allegro molto
Chamber Music - Released by Signum Classics on 18 Sep 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Granados: Goyescas, Op. 11, Book 1: III. El fandango de candil
Solo Piano - Released by Chandos on 3 May 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Taneyev • Schumann
Peter Donohoe, Sacconi Quartet
Classical - Released by Signum Records on 3 May 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo