Ronald Turini

Ronald Turini (born 30 September 1934) is a world renowned Canadian classical pianist.

He graduated from the Conservatory at age 16 in 1950.

Turini entered the Mannes School of Music in 1953, where he studied with Isabelle Vengerova and Olga Stroumillo, who introduced him to Vladimir Horowitz.

Horowitz, who accepted few pupils, was sufficiently impressed to accept Turini as a student.

He would later remark that Turini possessed the most brilliant two-handed runs of any pianist.

Horowitz became a major influence on Turini, who studied with him from 1956 through 1965.

The great pianist acknowledged only Byron Janis, Gary Graffman, and Turini as his eminent students, and Turini was known to be Horowitz' personally most highly regarded student.

Horowitz would later comment that Turini was not "pushy" enough in promoting himself and his own performing career.

Horowitz assisted in obtaining Turini's management contract with Columbia Artists Management (CAMI).

He is the first Canadian artist to win prizes at the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition and the Geneva International Music Competition, both in 1958, and the 1960 Queen Elisabeth Competition, where he was acclaimed by juror Emil Gilels.

He was an acknowledged student of Vladimir Horowitz, and was known to be Horowitz' personally most highly regarded student.

Turini performed internationally with prominent orchestras such as the Leningrad Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the London Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

He appeared with the Orchestre Lamoureux in Paris.

Turini gave extended tours of many cities in Europe and the U.S. with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington D.C., the San Antonio Symphony and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

He performed recitals in concert halls such as Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall.

Turini was a consistent performer and it was said that he almost never received a negative review from a music critic.

Turini later accepted a professorship at University of Western Ontario and recorded chamber music with his colleagues at Western.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, to an Italian-American father and a Danish-Canadian mother, Turini's father was an artist and his mother was a musician.

His grandfather Giovanni Turini was a sculptor whose bust of Garibaldi, under whom he had served, is a designated historical landmark in New York City's Washington Square.

Turini studied piano with his mother at a very young age and with Frank Hanson at the McGill Conservatory.

At age nine he began studies at the Montreal Conservatory of Music where he was taught by Yvonne Hubert, Germaine Malépart and Isidor Philipp.

Hubert was known for developing strong technical skills, and her students, besides Turini, included André Laplante, Janina Fialkowska, Louis Lortie, and Marc-André Hamelin.

Turini made his debut as a soloist with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Wilfrid Pelletier at the age of ten during WWII.

In 1958, Turini was awarded second prize at the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition, and along with Maurizio Pollini he was unanimously awarded a second prize at the 1958 Geneva International Music Competition.

Turini was awarded second place at the 1960 edition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, Belgium.

He performed the Schumann Piano Sonata No. 2 in G minor and the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 with the National Orchestra of Belgium conducted by Franz André.

Following the Brussels competition, jury member Emil Gilels wired to Horowitz, "Congratulations, "Professor", your Turini is wonderful."

On 23 January 1961, Turini made his American debut recital at Carnegie Hall, playing sonatas by Schumann and Hindemith, etudes by Chopin and Scriabin, and pieces by Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Ravel and Scarlatti.

The audience included notable musicians such as Artur Rubinstein, Leonard Bernstein, Walter Toscanini, Rudolf Firkušný, and many pianists.

Rubinstein was the first to congratulate Turini after the recital.

The reception after the concert was hosted by Horowitz and his wife at their apartment.

The next day, New York Times music critic Harold C. Schonberg characterized Turini as "resplendent", adding that "in addition to technical expertness, there was a quality of aristocracy to the performance."

The positive critical reaction to his Carnegie Hall debut was consistent with Turini's subsequent career, and it was said that he almost never received a negative review from a music critic.

Turini made two appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show performing solo piano works which were broadcast nationally in both the U.S. and Canada.

That same year of 1961, Turini performed the Schumann Piano Concerto with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra at Plateau Hall in Montreal under music director Zubin Mehta, receiving praise for his "placid sensitivity" as well as his "passion and power".

In 1962, Turini participated in a major tour of Europe (Leningrad, Moscow, Vienna, Paris) with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta and also with soprano soloist Teresa Stratas, who sang arias from Verdi and Puccini operas.

He performed the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in Leningrad and Vienna and the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 in Moscow and Paris.

Following the performances and a suddenly-arranged recital in Moscow, Soviet pianist Emil Gilels described Turini as "a great artist".

The Vienna Kurier 7 May 1962 music review by Herbert Schneiber stated that in the Rachmaninoff work Turini's "manner of playing is full of charm, stylish shades and poetical atmosphere."

His performance of the Liszt concerto in Paris was described in Le Figaro as "literally dazzling, of exceptional taste, finesse, and brilliance."