David Wilde
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David Wilde (born 1935 in Manchester) is a British pianist and composer. As a boy he studied with Solomon and his pupil Franz Reizenstein, who had also studied composition with Hindemith and Vaughan Williams.
A frequent soloist at the Henry Wood Proms, working with such conductors as Horenstein, Boulez, and Downes, he shared with Jacqueline du Pré the honour of opening the BBC's second TV Channel in the North of England with Sir John Barbirolli and the Hallé Orchestra in 1962, and was a soloist at the Royal Concert the same year.
During the 1990s he composed many works protesting against human rights abuses in our time and was twice honoured by the city of Sarajevo. "The Cellist of Sarajevo", (1992) dedicated to Vedran Smailovic, is played the world over and was recorded by Yo-Yo Ma for Sony Classical, and the opera "London under Siege”, after an idea by Bosnian poet Goran Simic, was produced by the State Theatre of Lower Saxony in 1998.
As a pianist Wilde has won several major prizes, including a first at the Liszt-Bartók competition in Budapest in 1961. The legendary Nadia Boulanger was a jury member and invited him to Paris for further study. He remained in close touch with her for the rest of her long life.
Recordings include all the sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven with Erich Gruenberg, the Sonata for violin and piano by his teacher Reizenstein, also with Gruenberg, the Concerto by Thomas Wilson (especially composed for him), and works by Schumann, Liszt, and Chopin. He has recorded for HMV, Decca Oiseau Lyre, Saga and CRD, and now records for Delphian Records of Edinburgh, who have already issued a Chopin recital, and are scheduled to issue recordings of music by Dallapiccola, Busoni, and Liszt in 2006.
He was Professor of Piano at the Music Academy in Hannover from 1981 to 2000. Since 2001 he has been Visiting Professor in Keyboard Studies at the University of Edinburgh.
He continues to play, write, compose, and teach.
