Pianist david helfgott biography of william

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    Biography

    David Helfgott

    David Helfgott was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1947. He showed extraordinary pianistic ability from an early age, winning the state finals of the ABC's Instrumental & Vocal Competition six times.

    At age 17, David began studying with Alice Carrard, a former student of Bartok and Istvan Thoman, himself a pupil of Liszt. Two years later, David went to London to study at the Royal College of Music with Cyril Smith, who described him as his most brilliant student in 25 years of teaching and likened him to Horowitz, both technically and temperamentally.

    David won a number of awards at the College, including the Dannreuther Prize for Best Concerto Performance for his triumphant performance of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto. However, towards the end of his time in London, David faced increased emotional instability and mental excitability, compounded by the death in Perth of his mentor, writer Katherine Susannah Pritchard.

    A period of fre

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    David Helfgott (born 19 May 1947) is an Australian concert pianist. Helfgott's life inspired the Oscar-winning film Shine,in which he was played by Geoffrey Rush. Helfgott was born in Melbourne to Polish Jewish parents. He became known as a child prodigy after his father started teaching him the piano when he was five. When he was ten years old, he studied under Frank Arndt, a Perth piano teacher, and won several local competitions—sometimes alone and sometimes with his elder sister Margaret. At the age of fourteen while studying at Mount Lawley Senior High School, people such as Perth composer James Penberthy and writer Katharine Susannah Prichard raised money to enable him to go to the United States to study music. However, his father denied him permission. From age 17 he studied with Alice Carrard, a former student of Béla Bartók and István Thomán. He won the state final of the ABC Instrumental and Vocal Competition six times.

    At the age of nineteen, Helfgott won a scho
  • pianist david helfgott biography of william

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    Photograph by Mauricio Alejo

    Two summers ago, I was playing concerts in Santa Fe, some five hours’ drive from where I grew up. Travel is more difficult for my parents than it used to be, but they made the trek to hear me. They brought along a strange gift—a black notebook with my name on the front, written in my best prepubescent cursive. It had been excavated from a closet and smelled faintly of mothballs. I’d forgotten it existed but recognized it instantly: my piano-lesson journal. Starting in 1981, when I was eleven, it sat on my music rack, so that I could consult, or pretend to consult, my teacher’s comments. Week after week, he wrote down what I’d played and how it went, and outlined the next week’s goals.

    I paged through nostalgically, reflecting on how far I’d come. But a few days later I was onstage, performing, and a voice made itself heard in my head: “Better not play faster than you can think.” It was the notebook talking. I was indeed playing faster than I could