Joanna MacGregor

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Joanna MacGregor
Born	July 16, 1959 (1959-07-16) (age 48)
Genre(s)	Classical, jazz, contemporary
Occupation(s)	Pianist, Artistic Director, educator and Record Label owner
Instrument(s)	Piano
Label(s)	Soundcircus
Website	www.soundcircus.com

Joanna MacGregor (born 16 July 1959) is an internationally renowned classical, jazz and contemporary pianist. She is also a promoter, an artistic director, an educator and runs her own record label SoundCircus.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Quotes 2.1 CHILDHOOD 2.2 MUSICIAN'S LIFE 2.3 ON CLASSICAL MUSIC 2.4 RUNNING A LABEL 2.5 COLLABORATIONS 2.6 EDUCATION 2.7 ARTS COUNCIL 3 Discography 4 Concerto Repertoire 5 References 5.1 Reviews 5.2 Articles 5.3 Radio performances 5.4 Radio interviews 5.5 Television 5.6 Other links

[edit] Biography

She grew up in North London, England and was educated at home by her Seventh-day Adventist parents until she attended South Hampstead High School at the age of 11. Her mother is a piano teacher who studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Joanna studied music at New Hall, University of Cambridge (1978–81) and was taught by Hugh Wood. After Cambridge, she did a Masters in performance at the Royal Academy of Music, London, with Christopher Elton. She also studied at the Van Cliburn Piano Institute in Texas which included masterclasses with Jorge Bolet.

In the early years of her career, she made a living from writing music for TV. Her first significant break was being selected as an artist for the Young Concert Artists Trust in 1985.

Her next major break was a record deal with Collins Classics, with whom she made fifteen recordings for. These recordings tend towards 20th Century composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Bartok, Ives, Messaien, Birtwistle, Britten and Hugh Wood. There are also recordings of Bach and Scarlatti.

In 1998, she launched her own record label SoundCircus in association with Unknown Public. The label combines new recordings with re-releases of the Collins material. MacGregor was able to buy back the rights to these Collins recordings. The must successful release on Soundcircus was "Play", a diverse collection mainly of solo piano pieces. "Play" was nominated for the Mercury Prize 2002. It came within two votes of winning the award. Initially, the label was internet based and mail order only. The label was distributed in the UK by MackTwo until it went out of business. The label is now distributed by New Note.

She has performed in over sixty countries often appearing as a solo artist with many of the world's leading orchestras. These include the New York Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The many eminent conductors with whom she has worked include Pierre Boulez, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis and Michael Tilson Thomas. She has premiered many landmark compositions ranging from Sir Harrison Birtwistle and Django Bates to John Adams and James MacMillan.

She has toured South Africa with jazz artist Moses Molelekwa, recorded with pop artist Talvin Singh and toured China (with her own music combining traditional Chinese instruments and electronics) with Jin Xing's Contemporary Dance Theatre of Shanghai.

MacGregor was the subject of an episode of The South Bank Show in December 2001. She also presented her own series entitled Strings, Bows, and Bellows for BBC Television.

In 2003, she was recognised for her innovation and crossover appeal with a Royal Philharmonic Society award for imaginative programming and tireless work in opening up music to a new audience. Other awards include European Encouragement Prize for Music 1995, NFMS Sir Charles Grove Award 1998, and South Bank Show Award for Classical Music 2000

On 20 May 1990, The BBC broadcasted a radio play that she wrote entitled "Memoirs of an Amnesiac" about the life of Eric Satie. It was nominated for the Prix Italia, a prestigious radio award.

In September 1991 her musical adaptation of The Caucasian Chalk Circle was performed at the Unicorn Theatre.

She organised the Platform Festival of New Music from 1991 until 1993. This included an eight-day festival at the Arts Theatre in Great Newport Street in 1991 which featured performers Simon Limbrick and the Norwegian cellist, Oystein Birkeland, and composers ranging from Paul Kellett (The Birth of Liquid Desires 2 `eight minutes of wildness' for 13 cellos) to the George Crumb.

Between 1997 and 2000, she was Professor of Music at Gresham College, London, giving free public lectures. She has received honorary Professorships and Fellowships from the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music and an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University.

MacGregor was appointed as Member of the Arts Council England in 1998 alongside Anish Kapoor, Brian McMaster, and Andrew Motion. She resigned in 2004.

Her series of piano teaching books for children called Piano World were published in May 2001 by Faber Music. They feature storytelling, cartoons, games and include a companion CDs with cartoon style narration and musical accompaniments.

She made her conducting début in 2002 and regularly directs her own orchestral projects. She has had a very close artistic partnership as conductor and performer with the Britten Sinfonia for the past ten years.

In 2005, she was appointed as Artistic Director of the Bath International Music Festival. The climax of the festival was a programme of renaissance and electronic music with herself, Brian Eno and the Bath Camerata in Bath Abbey.

[edit] Quotes

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can (April 2007).

[edit] CHILDHOOD

"I didn't go to school until I was 11. On your own you develop imagination" Evening Standard - 04/07/2002

"As I get older I realise that start has made me rather, well, different. It set down a tremendous template for the rest of my life. I grew up believing the piano is a great instrument because you can play everything on it." The Independent - 23/06/2003

"My education was very intensive and I applied that training later on to playing the piano. I had always played, but having no one to compare myself to, I had no idea if I was any good." The Express on Sunday - 06/01/2002

"I can see it must seem strange, but to me it was normality. Really, my memory of my childhood is that the sun always shone and I spent all my time playing in the park. Since then I've discovered that some of the great musicians I admire - Charles Ives, John Cage, even Bob Dylan - had quite unconventional childhoods." Evening Standard - 04/07/2002

"Not only was I fiddling around at the keyboard but there were all these other children of all backgrounds wanting to play every sort of music bits of classical, jazz, pop, improvisation." The Guardian - 26/05/2000

"School was strange, rather amusing - with a teacher standing at the front telling you what to write. The camaraderie was interesting. I tend to remember the things you can't recreate on your own - queuing up for your dinner, learning team games, which were a complete mystery to me. I remember having to pretend I knew how to play hockey, that kind of thing." The Mail on Sunday - 06/02/2000

"What was most odd was that teachers would tell you what to do and what to think and they would write everything on a blackboard and you would copy it all down." The Evening Standard - 04/07/2002

"I wasn't part of that hothouse thing. I didn't go to the Yehudi Menuhin school. I grew up with the idea of trying to make music available to people of all abilities." The Guardian - 26/05/2000

"I'm trained quite classically but quite freely by my mum, so even when I was little, I had this rather freewheeling approach. When I trained more seriously in my late teens at college, it was: here are the notes, here is what is expected of you. I didn't mind because you need technique, particularly on the piano, which requires a lot of stamina. And it was natural that once I had done that, I would want to go beyond classical music. How can you be yourself if all you do is reproduce someone else's notes?" The Guardian - 05/10/2001

"I used to do Grade Exams, but my mum will tell you I didn't over-practise for them at all. I never practised, just played. I loved to play. I loved to play a lot* If one mistake is made with young children, it is trying to make them practise rather than just letting them play.' She played hymns at church ('My parents were very religious when we were young') and 'all the Top of the Pops number ones next morning at school. Things like David Bowie's "Life On Mars". That's got a very good piano part. And ever since I was six or seven years old, I always liked Bach - that's why I recorded the Anna Magdalene Notebook, little 16-bar preludes that Bach wrote for children.' I was amazed at how serious the other kids were about the whole thing, much more disciplined than I was, and with this attitude of "Ooh, I can't play sports because I might hurt my fingers" or "I can't listen to pop music because that's really terrible." The Mail on Sunday - 06/02/2000

"I was given so much advice. About how my hair should be, what I should wear, which competitions I should enter, what stuff I should play. None of that was relevant for me. I just had a kind of instinct." Financial Times - 11/11/199

"I've played Bach since I was a little girl. I can't let a day go by without playing him. He's so witty and secretive and funny and mathematical and brilliant." The Independent - 23/06/2003

[edit] MUSICIAN'S LIFE

"I got my apprenticeship, with the Young Concert Artists Trust, playing all these warhorses in Raymond Gubbay concerts. Some are not for me anymore, but I'd still play the Grieg at the drop of a hat; it's so fresh. I'm very careful to keep on playing a lot of mainstream repertoire. I'm not into being the court jester who just does the wacky stuff. Making the connections and taking people down new paths is what I enjoy." The Times - 15/12/1998

"As a musician you can cover everything. I'm not just a concert pianist." The Irish News - 22/01/2005

"Once you start cancelling, there's always something which is not quite right." The Express on Sunday - 06/01/2002

"Memory is the fear, and I play most of my repertoire from memory." The Express on Sunday - 06/01/2002

"I quite like shutting the door, putting the answering machine on and sitting at the piano for six or seven hours" Straits Times - 01/11/1991

"If you want a nine-to-five existence with weekends off then don't be a musician. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now if I had children. But it hasn't worked out like that." The Mail on Sunday - 06/02/2000

"I know I get up people's noses," "Everyone wants to pigeonhole you. Early on in my career I somehow got labelled 'Bach, John Cage and a bit of jazz'. But the fact that I love to play Beethoven, too, really infuriates people. It doesn't fit. They can't make sense of it. The received wisdom is that you can't possibly do all these things without it sounding terrible or crass or just plain wrong," The Evening Standard - 04/07/2002

"I tour a bit in America and a lot in Europe, Holland especially, where they have this forward-looking music scene because they got through the barriers 15 years ago. They gobble up the things I do. I go to the Far East - I like working with the orchestra in Singapore - but my favourite places tend to be the ones where it's more than turning up and doing a big concert. Next month I go to the Sydney Festival, where I've persuaded them to do the Lou Harrison concerto. As penance, though I don't mind it, I have to play the Gershwin concerto in the first half. And I hope to return year after year to South Africa, where I've been with the National Symphony Orchestra into Soweto. Education work is being done there for the first time. Previously they had never bothered to find new audiences, and now they are staring into an abyss which we may face too. Events there are a fast-forward version of what could happen here." The Times - 15/12/1998

"I'm becoming very interested in non-Western things, and in Europe a lot of what's offered to me is the Western tradition I've grown up with. Now I've got to find a way out, but the problem is that the piano is just about as Western as you can get. The piano's my instrument, and I wouldn't want it any other way, but I'm gravitating quite naturally towards things that have developed my sense of rhythm. "I've come to all this incredible Indian classical music and its more modern formations late in the day; the Messiaen I've played has led me down that road, and I've been following my nose all the time." The Times - 15/12/1998

"I want to move away from complexity. I've done my time as far as virtuosity and piles of notes are concerned. It's what puts me off a lot of contemporary classical music - there are so many notes. In fact, I think I'm moving away from classical music altogether. I'm not sure that in 10 years' time I'll be playing it at all." The Daily Telegraph - 18/11/2003

"it's a life of planes and trains" Newsquest Media Group Newspapers - 03/03/2005

[edit] ON CLASSICAL MUSIC

"I don't really go along with this sense that you sometimes pick up - that is, classical music is superior to everything else. I think classical music is a very great music form, but I can also think of other great music forms. And certainly within each field, you have absolute geniuses operating. Over the years, I've tried to bring together different people from different fields, and I do try to put Bach and Beethoven next to other types of musicians." Denver Post - 18/02/2005

"I have absolutely no difficulty in coming out and saying Bach and Beethoven are great composers. You must school young people into great classical music, but you must also allow them to hear other music as well. At one point classical music colonised the high ground. Now we're reaping the backlash for that." The Times - 21/04/2006

"In a lot of classical playing there isn't much expressiveness: I don't hear a voice in the playing. What I really admire about jazz musicians is that they develop a sound early on and it's unique to them. Classical players are screened from that by always playing other people's notes." The Times - 21/04/2006

"I think there is an incredible crisis now of how we train performers. Their training encourages them to behave as though they are back in the 19th century, and they are not allowed to get out of that box very much. 'If they play a tiny bit of contemporary music, it's looked on as a bit eccentric, and it's sort of tolerated instead of absolutely encouraged. And they certainly can't improvise, and they find it difficult to encounter jazz or jazz styles. 'I think they're all waking up to this, and it's very difficult for them, because the training and the value systems that get put on them go against what we all know to be the real world. Musicians do want to break out of these constraints. It's slightly boring to just play the same cycle of pieces over and over again." Denver Post - 18/02/2005

"You can give music variation without changing the notes. When you get close to a piece there will inevitable be tinkering. I sometimes wonder if concert pianists expend so much effort and energy finding new ways to interpret that what they really need is some more direct form of self-expression," Denver Post - 18/02/2005

"As a professional I practice six or seven hours per day, though it depends on my schedule. That's how it is as a musician. It's only when you reach grade five you take them more serious. Until then I saw it as fun. I used to learn them by play pop tunes on the piano. They have harmonies and broken chords and can be used as building blocks to help you with scales." The Irish News - 22/01/2005

"Being a specialist is a 20th century thing, and now rather old fashioned as an idea. I realised early on that you can be the kind of superstar who jets around playing the same programmes all over the world, or you can be the sort of musician who perhaps can be a little influential." The Evening Standard - 04/07/2002

"My favorite composers tend to be great improvisers as well as great players. It doesn't matter whether they're contemporary or classical." The Independent - 23/06/2003

"The musicians who interest me most are people like Nitin Sawhney, Talvin Singh, Django Bates. They are not just writing music but performing it, recording it, putting tours together and running their own labels. That is what real musicians are, rather than over-publicised specialists." Independent On Sunday - 14/10/2001

"A lot of musicians are going to have to retrain. It's nonsense to say that traditional classical music is more complex. Contemporary pieces by Harrison Birtwistle are much harder to play than Mozart or Wagner. I know a lot of people don't want to hear that." The Mail on Sunday - 06/02/2000

"Classical music has struggled to keep up. Unlike any other art form, it keeps on looking backwards all the time. It used to have a real museum culture. Then it went: "Oh my God, what are we going to do? Call for Nigel Kennedy. Quick!" Classical musicians have got to change or die,' she asserts strongly, 'but they just don't know how to. Audiences for classical music have dropped. The old blue rinse audience is dying out, and young people aren't coming in." The Mail on Sunday - 06/02/2000

"We're really not very good about putting music in a social and political context, particularly classical music. It's all sort of above everything. But in South Africa, everything is politicised. You play a piece of classical music out there and you are making a real cultural statement. Or you play with a marimba band and you are saying something else. I think that's the way things should be. The way people write about music makes it seem completely devoid of social context. And audiences drift away as a result." Financial Times - 11/11/1999

"The freedom of improvising over a bass line disappeared from music only in the 19th century, and we're still paying for it. There's a culture among classical musicians of being passive, and it stems from following the notes, rather than one's own instincts." The Times - 15/12/1998

"Classical musicians can sometimes get very hung up on the idea that there's a right way and there's a wrong way. You can see this destroy a lot of players. Jazz musicians have a way of understanding that there are a lot of different ways of doing things. That's what's great about them, they're so friendly. And they are so individualistic - that's why they can accept someone like me." The Independent - 03/04/1998

"You don't rely on a great army of people to spoon-feed you. Today's classical-music world is very self-defeating. I love the fact that all these corporations are falling apart. They're sinking millions into acts and getting it wrong. And I know why - it's not about the music, or the audiences. So in many ways this is a very encouraging time." The Independent - 23/06/2003

[edit] RUNNING A LABEL

"Because I'd collaborated with a lot of musicians, either through running festivals or series, there were lots of things I wanted to create that a conventional label didn't seem able to cope with. So it seemed the right time to make my own." The Irish News - 22/01/2005

"Record companies are dead, aren't they?' she smiles. 'I'm pleased about that. I think it's hilarious* A lot of classical albums sound the same. They even have the same gaps of silence between tracks. The pieces are always in chronological order, they're the same length, the same packaging. Why?" The Mail on Sunday - 06/02/2000

"It was a logical step for me. It gives me the chance to promote young musicians like the jazz pianist-composer Nikki Yeoh, with whom I work." The Times - 15/12/1998

"Everybody pays lip service to the concept, but there's nothing worse than being in your early twenties and trying to get a gig. I know how hard it is to get people to take you seriously. It also gives me the chance to record some of the music I've been doing live, especially the unusual programmes that just don't fit into the classical-label way of doing things." The Times - 15/12/1998

"I heard a lot about not mixing composers, not being able to do this and that because the distributors wouldn't know where to put it. The shops can't cope: they force me to go upstairs to classical, downstairs to jazz, sideways to techno, and I wanted to make records that would encompass all of those." The Times - 15/12/1998

"I can't believe that people out there are so anorak that they only want things to be a certain size. I assume that they all have books, so they can put them on bookshelves. There's an audience out there that's one step ahead, that wants to have all kinds of music together. There's a tendency to underestimate how hungry audiences are for new experiences." The Times - 15/12/1998

"I got very tired of playing to large audiences all round the world and finding that there were never any records for people to buy afterwards in the foyer. Classical companies make recordings in a void. They don't make the necessary link with concerts.""I wanted to question every part of the recording process, including the packaging of the product. We're not selling in the shops, which means we don't have to use that horrible little plastic box which splits and falls apart. It also means we can marry styles in a way the big labels and record shops - which pigeonhole rigidly - can never contemplate. I'm just hoping to cover my costs. I don't want to fall into the trap of having to price things at the same level as everyone else." The Independent - 21/08/1998

"I want to record a far broader range than I would ever get asked to. Musicians get profiled quite quickly by their labels - then by distributors, then by critics, then by the shops. It doesn't reflect the artist's diversity.' Worse than that, she points out, records often don't reflect the artist's working life at all. Much recorded music these days is specially learnt to fill `gaps in the catalogue' and won't ever be played live." The Independent - 21/08/1998

"Record companies will say, `You can't put these composers together because the distributors won't like it. So one of the real sticking points with record companies is: How can we fill this CD up? `But take Harrison's Clocks - that's 25 minutes of fantastically rich, full music. I'd be wary of adding anything. Why not a CD single, appropriately priced?" The Guardian - 26/06/1998

"I've just always wanted control over my artistic life. Working with so much new music, I'm always doing things people might not like. I risk my reputation every time I play. It's no different with records." The Guardian - 26/06/1998

"I had large audiences up at the Manchester SoundCircus for both Ensemble Modern doing Mark-Anthony Turnage's Blood On The Floor and for John Harle's Terror And Magnificence. In neither case did the record company manage to get the CDs to us. You just think, `Who are these people?' `I do all these premieres, and if they get onto disc at all, it's a year and a half later. By then, the media excitement and urgency has gone." The Guardian - 26/06/1998

"The key to it is to work with living composers. The record companies keep going back to old music and recording the same pieces over and over, and then they try to find ways to sell it. And the way they do this is to put a girl into a short dress and give a boy an interesting haircut." The Mail on Sunday - 06/02/2000

"Well, it's early days. But it's a long-term artistic investment more than a financial investment." Financial Times - 11/11/1999

[edit] COLLABORATIONS

"My criteria to work with someone are really rather simple and quite foolish, I meet people and I get interested in them, and I ask them to write something for me. Sometimes I meet people and I haven't even heard their music; it sounds risky but I haven't been caught out by doing that yet. Especially with young composers. They may not have been published, they don't have an agent, they don't have backup, they don't have anything on CD, but you know that they're interesting and you know that there is something there." The Guardian - 05/10/2001

MacGregor collaborated with Jin Xing in 2002.

"When I visit a country, I really want to find out about the musicians there. I was in China recently, working with a group of dancers, and was curious to know what pop music they listened to. I always travel with CDs, so I played them Eminem to Miles Davis to African drumming music, and they hadn't heard any of those things, but what they really loved was Nitin Sawhney's Beyond Skin, and most of all, they loved it when I played them John Cage on the piano. Straight away, they realised that it was a western instrument transformed into an eastern object." The Guardian - 05/10/2001

"People get themselves into collaborative fixes in order to try and reach a new audience. The ones that work are the ones that work from the bottom up, not from the top down." The Times - 21/04/2006

"If an orchestra commissions a jazz player to write a symphony you know there's going to be a problem. Unless you allow them to do what it is they're so good at doing, it's a very unequal approach. You can't just say come over to our territory and we'll allow you to play around with an orchestra for a little while and hope that something good comes out of it." The Times - 21/04/2006

"I've always wanted to be challenging intellectually and artistically, but I still feel that you can make that accessible. What's happened is that the complex nature of some of the music we're talking about has become the preserve of a small coterie and that's somehow seen as OK. I don't think it's OK at all. My experience of audiences is that they are very intelligent, creative. If they feel they can't come to a Birtwistle concert there's something wrong with the presentation. There's nothing wrong with the music, and there's nothing wrong with the audience. There's just been a major communication breakdown. I agree that there's a tendency to play up trashy things, but then we also fall victim to this high-and low-culture scenario." Financial Times - 11/11/1999

"The key to commissioning is inviting the composer to have fun, because writing for the piano can be a frightening burden. It's a difficult instrument to compose for, everybody's done it, and it lays you bare because there been this incredible history of fantastic keyboard music." The Times - 15/12/1998

"Bach, Beethoven and Mozart's time was much more chaotic and energetic than it is today. There was a hands-on approach that allowed them to run their own orchestras, to do everything. Now, as soon as you turn 16, it's like, OK, what are you going to be? Performer? Composer? Conductor?" The Independent - London - 23/06/2003

"For a start, there is really no difference between Bach and Mozart's financial and creative struggles and the ones most living composers face today. They certainly have the same maverick qualities. It's only the telescope of time that makes them look all divine and God-given." The Independent - 23/06/2003

[edit] EDUCATION

"When my students are playing Bach, I say to them, `Start by improvising around the ornamentations.' It's a way to open up a different part of your brain, and classical musicians have that knocked out of them. The training they go through makes them very skilful, but it induces a certain passivity. That has to change. At the moment, classical music is imploding, which is a painful process, but eventually it will lead to a new generation of musicians who are able to think for themselves." Independent On Sunday - 14/10/2001

"Personally, I see no meaningful difference between performing and informing. When you study the historical models for pianists, you find they spent their lives informing -- often about music that had just been written, often music of their own or in their own transcription -- and that was how they defined themselves." The New York Times - 28/08/2005

"One of the things I discussed in my lecture, and it's on the blackboard, is the extent to which Bach was keenly aware of what was going on around him, of contemporary styles other than his own. You see it time and again in the 'Goldberg,' and I find most composers today share that curiosity. But not performers. Young pianists get trapped into thinking all the time about technique and leave themselves a depressingly narrow view of repertoire, with no concern for their wider role as musicians." The New York Times - 28/08/2005

"I have enormous sympathy with people who find it difficult to practise. I don't think people talk about practice enough.' The secret of any practice, whether for 20 minutes or five hours, is to work out beforehand exactly what it is you are aiming to do, she says. Other tips: treat yourself play the whole piece through, however many wrong notes. And mix hard with easy. `If I'm learning a Birtwistle, and gosh that's hard. It's nice to play a piece by Eric Satie afterwards." The Guardian - 26/05/2000

[edit] ARTS COUNCIL

"It was an exciting time, but that's not me. I'm just a musician who travels and plays." Newsquest Media Group Newspapers - 03/03/2005

"I didn't have that thing about, "Oh, you're talented. That means you must practice four hours a day. I just grew up and I played. I played for my friends, and I mucked around, basically. One of my great fortunes was not being trained too much." Denver Post - 18/02/2005

"I suppose I'm there because I'm outspoken. Lots of people are struggling to do their best under appalling circumstances. I believe even the most conservative arts organisations are desperate not to play quite so safe, but have no choice because of underfunding. It's like constantly trying to bail out a leaky ship. The good thing is that in letting people like me be part of the discussion, they hear from those who are out there, doing it." The Evening Standard - 04/07/2002

"I believe that if you have something to contribute, you should be willing to come forward." The Express on Sunday - 06/01/2002

"I think we were able to do certain things and we were totally unable to do other things. We invested a huge amount of money in orchestras but they used it mostly to pay off their debts." "Everybody wants to maintain the status quo all the time but the status quo itself is in total flux. I find that even in Bath. There's a sense that what people crave is change and when change comes it's very painful." The Times - 21/04/2006

The government "should take the bull by the horns, and double or treble the arts budget. Society needs art." Financial Times - 11/11/1999

[edit] Discography

Collins Classics

• MacGregor on Broadway. (1991) Collins Classics.
• Hugh Wood: Piano Concerto, Op. 31. (1993) BBC Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Davis. Collins Classics 20072.
• Bartók/Debussy/Ravel - Piano Works. (1994) Collins Classics.
• Krauze/Messiaen - Quartets. (1994) Collins Classics.
• Olivier Messaien - Vingt Regards sur L'Enfant Jesus. Collins Classics.
• Ives: Sonata No.1/Barber: Sonata, Op.26/Excursions, Op.20 . (1993)
• The Music of George Gershwin. (1992) Collins Classics 13622. MacGregor's performances of numerous short pieces by Gershwin alongside the composer's "Piano Concerto in F" and the original jazz band version of "Rhapsody In Blue."Carl Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra provide invaluable instrumental support.
• Britten: "Paul Bunyan", Piano Concerto/Saxton: Music to Celebrate. Collins Classics.
• Birtwistle: Antiphonies for Piano and Orchestra/Nomos/An Imaginary Landscape. Collins Classics.
• Rhapsody in Blue. (1993) Collins Classics.
• Britten - Piano Concerto. English Chamber Orchestra, Stuart Bedford. Collins Classics. Also re-released on Naxos.
• Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas, Collins Classics.
• Erik Satie's piano music, Collins Classics.
• Counterpoint, contains Bach's Art of Fugue and works by Conlon Nancarrow. Collins Classics.

Sound Circus

• Piano Language. Sound Circus SC001.
• Outside in Pianist. Sound Circus SC002.
• Perilous Night. Sound Circus SC003.
• Harrison's Clocks. Sound Circus SC004.
• Lou Harrison Piano Concerto. Sound Circus SC005.
• Damba Moon, Ensemble Bash. Sound Circus SC006.
• Play. (2001), Sound Circus SC007.
• Neural Circuits, features works by Olivier Messiaen, Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt and Nitin Sawhney alongside music based on traditional Ghanaian melodies. Sound Circus SC008.
• Deep River. (2006) Sound Circus SC009.
• Sidewalk Dances. (2006) Sound Circus SC010.
• Bach's 6 French Suites, Sound Circus SC901.
• Satie: Piano Music. Reissue on Sound Circus SC902.
• Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas. Sound Circus SC903.
• Quiet Music. Sound Circus SC904.
• Counterpoint: Bach / Nancarrow. Sound Circus BN2CD.

[edit] Concerto Repertoire

Piano and Orchestra

• JOHN ADAMS Century Rolls
• BACH Concerto in D minor BWV 1052, Concerto in F minor BWV 1056
• BARTOK Concerto No.3
• DJANGO BATES What it's Like to be Alive (Piano Concerto for Joanna MacGregor)
• BEETHOVEN Concerto No.4 in G Op.58, Concerto No.5 in E flat Op.73
• BERG Chamber Concerto
• BIRTWISTLE Antiphonies, Slow Frieze
• BRITTEN Concerto, Young Apollo
• GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue, Concerto in F major
• LOU HARRISON Concerto for Piano and Selected Orchestra
• HARVEY Bird Concerto with Pianosong
• JAMES MACMILLAN Concerto no 2
• MESSIAEN Turangalîla-Symphonie, Oiseaux Exotiques
• MOZART Concerto in E flat K 271, Concerto in D minor K 466, Concerto in C K 467, Concerto in A K 488, Concerto in C minor K 491
• PROKOFIEV Concerto No.2 in G minor Op.16, Concerto No.3 in C Op.26
• RACHMANINOV Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Op.34
• RAVEL Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, Piano Concerto in G
• SCHNITTKE Concerto for piano and strings
• SHOSTAKOVICH Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings in C minor Op.35 , Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No.2 in F, Op.102
• STRAVINSKY Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
• HUGH WOOD Piano Concerto

[edit] References

[edit] Reviews

Reviews of recorded work

• Deep River, Time Out, 8 May 2006
• Deep River, Jazzwise 2006
• Play, BBC Music/Classical

• Review of Bach's French Suites. The Observer, 29 June 2003.

• Review of Neural Circuits. The Observer, 25 August 2002

• The tried and the testing. Review of Neural Circuits. The Times, 16 July 2002.

• Play. The Gramophone 79:949 January 2002 p. 83
• Play, The Guardian, 14 December 2001.

• Review of Lou Harrison Piano Concerto. The Observer, 03/12/2000.

• Review of Harrison's Clocks. The Sunday Times, 28 November 1999.

• Review of Perilous Nights. The Observer, 28 February 1999.

• Different pitch, same goal. Feature about recording session for Piano Language. The Independent, 3 May 1998.

• The ultimate collection MESSIAEN: VINGT REGARDS SUR L'ENFANT JESUS The Sunday Times, 2 February 1997.

• Review of Counterpoint Expression. The New York Times, 26 December 1996.

• Review of Hugh Wood Piano Concerto. Financial Times, 10 May 1993.

Reviews of live work

• Britten Sinfonia / MacGregor: Bach Meets Moondog. The Independent, 17 November 2006.
• Wigmore Hall solo recital, The Guardian, 21 September 2006.
• Hope / MacGregor / Britten Sinfonia, Assembly Rooms/Pavilion, Bath, The Independent, 14 October 2006.
• Brian Eno / Joanna MacGregor / Bath Camerata, Bath Festival, The Independent, 28 May 2006.
• Brian Eno / Joanna MacGregor / Bath Camerata, The Guardian, 27 May 2006.
• Joanna MacGregor / Andy Sheppard, The Guardian, 1 May 2006.
• Bach meets Moondog Symphony Hall, Birmingham. The Times, 19 April 2006.
• Joanna MacGregor at St George's, Bristol, The Guardian, 5 February 2005.
• Britten Sinfonia / MacGregor, The Times, 17 November 2005.
• Andy Sheppard and Joanna MacGregor BBC Oxford, February 2004.
• Britten Sinfonia / Joanna MacGregor / Andy Sheppard, CBSO Centre, Birmingham, The Independent, 1 December 2003.
• Britten Sinfonia / MacGregor, The Guardian, 22 November 2003.
• Birdsong concerto takes flight, The Daily Telegraph, 26 April 2003.
• John Adams piano concerto "Century Rolls", Financial Times, 26 November 2002.
• The search for substance, The Daily Telegraph, 22 November 2002
• Joanna MacGregor / Aref Durvesh, The Guardian, 8 June 2002.
• Lou Harrison and Alfred Schnittke concerto's and Nitin Sawhney's Neural Circuits, The Telegraph, 1 November 2001.
• MacGregor / Sheppard, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London... The Guardian, 2 May 2001
• Everything in Black and White: Review of "Street Music", Irish Times.
• Britten Sinfonia / MacGregor - Neural Circuits, Lou Harrison concerto, The Guardian, 22 February 2001.
• Joanna MacGregor / Ensemble Bash Prom, Royal Albert Hall, London, The Guardian, 20 July 2000.
• LSO / Pierre Boulez, Britten Sinfonia and Django Bates, Barbican London. The Independent, 2 March 2000.
• Britten Sinfonia / Human Chain / Cleobury. The Times, 7 March 2000
• A bouquet of barbed twigs. Review of QEH rectial. The Independent, 19 December 1998.
• Be prepared. Review of QEH recital. The Times, 18 December 1998.
• Virtuoso with visuals, The Times, 23 April 1998.
• The Crowd Pleasers. Review of Nancarrow at QEH. The Sunday Times, 19 May 1996.
• PROMS; Maxwell Davies premiere / BBC Philharmonic; Ensemble Bash Royal Albert Hall, London / Radio 3. The Independent, 28 July 1997 .
• A Good Looker: Joanna MacGregor; Barbican The Independent, 4 February 1997.
• Fine fluency and freedom; Joanna MacGregor recital, Wigmore Hall The Times, 17 March 1989.
• Joanna MacGregor at the Purcell Room. The Times, 13 January 1987

[edit] Articles

• Joanna MacGregor: Mixing it Purism in music is out; eclecticism is in. But no one does it better, or with more genuine enthusiasm, than Joanna MacGregor, says Phil Johnson - she's a pianist as thrilling with Bach as with Moondog
• Bach meets Moondog: Deceased American composer's quirky fugues resurrected in London. nwitimes.com, 17 November 2006.
• Joanna MacGregor explains why she is a musician first and a pianist second, and why she’s always ready to try something new. Pianist magazine, Issue No 29, 2006.
• Why this Bath will be bubbly; Interview; Joanna MacGregor. The Times, 21 April 2006.
• An Entirely Different Idea of Summer School. New York Times, 28 August 2005.
• Joanna MacGregor: A pianist in concert with the present. The Independent, 23 June 2003.
• Switched On Bach. The Telegraph, 18 November 2003.
• A pianist in concert with the present. The Independent, 23 June 2003.
• A thousand reasons to listen to Joanna. The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 July 2003.* MacGregor wins classical award., BBC News Online, 7 May 2003.
• Bach and all that jazz, The Guardian, 8 September 2002.
• Stretch your ears: Joanna MacGregor, The Independent, 5 July 2002.
• Joanna plays it her own way, The Evening Standard, 4 July 2002.
• First we lost the stars, then the intellectuals. Why are today's concert pianists so very boring?. The Guardian, 05/09/2002.
• Playing the new Joanna. The Express on Sunday, 6 January 2002.
• Music That Changed Me: Joanna MacGregor. Music that profoundly influenced her. When she was little, it was Bach, Bach, Bach! Says that she liked the mathematics, the patterns and the rhythm. Indicates that when she became interested in John Cage, she had been traveling in Africa, China and Indonesia. States that she loves the music of these countries because it is so subtle and rhythmically complex, but she could not find any way as a pianist to explore that until she heard Cage. BBC Music magazine volume 10 issue, 5 January 2002 p. 130.
• Opinion: From Where I Sit - Joanna MacGregor Gramophone Vol. 80 Issue 959 2002 p.19
• Open a different part of your brain. Independent on Sunday, 14 October 2001.
• Mad, bad and dangerous to play - Keep your distance when I perform Lou Harrison's piano concerto... By Joanna MacGregor. The Guardian 11 October 2001.
• Home Entertainment, The Guardian, 5 October 2001.
• Cool Dudes. Classical Music issue 660, 17 June 2000 p. 51 Profiles pianist Joanna MacGregor and her series of piano instruction books for young children. Reports that the series called "Piano World", blazing with color, sets out to encourage children brought up on computers and cartoons to enjoy the early stages of learning to play the instrument.
• Joanna Lessons, The Guardian, 26 May 2000.
• Calling the tune; She's been branded a loudmouthed punk, but Joanna MacGregor doesn't care. All the acclaimed pianist wants is to save classical music from Nigel Kennedy and Vanessa Mae. The Mail on Sunday, 6 February 2000.
• `We can't make it easy enough'. The Independent, 11 November 1999.
• An artist investing for the future. Financial Times, 11 November 1999.
• Joanna in Town Listen to Norway Vol. 7, issue 3 1999 p. 26–27 Profiles pianist Joanna MacGregor and her views regarding the current stifled state of classical music. Explains that it is necessary to embrace contemporary music in order to restore an interest and creativity in classical music. Argues that performing the works of dead musicians repeatedly from concert hall to concert hall is a passive practice which found popularity on the audiences of the past, but has failed to grip the youth of the future. Suggests classical music be mixed with jazz, modern, and electronic genres, and tells of the genre-bending show "Joanna in Town" where professional and amateur musicians perform various styles of music on the same bill.
• If You Want It Done Properly... Gramophone 76:912 March 1999 p.18–19. Spotlights pianist Joanna McGregor, who explains why she decided to set up her own record label, SoundCircus after becoming dissatisfied with the marketing strategies and constrictions of major-label contracts. Observes that she is anxious to explore a much wider repertoire and to preserve many of the works which she has commissioned which would otherwise go unheard. Notes that the new label will be sold on the Internet as well as through direct sales at concerts rather than through conventional retail outlets. Previews two SoundCircus releases which are reviewed elsewhere in the issue.
• The piano's grand ... but there's more The Times, 15/12/1998.
• Classical - An industry in crisis? Not quite. The Independent, 21/08/1998.
• Sound of the circus. The Guardian, 26/06/1998.
• Different pitch, same goal. The Independent, 03/04/1998.
• Women of the Year Lunch. The Times, 07/10/1997.
• Joanna MacGregor Musical Opinion issue 115 April 1992 p. 148–149
• Joanna MacGregor: People's Pianist, cover feature. Classical Music Magazine, 10 August 1991.
• Ivory queen. Evening Standard, 14/06/1991.
• Arts (TV Preview): Bitter-sweet music. The Times, 15 November 1986.

• Interview with Morgan Soames

[edit] Radio performances

Performances on BBC Radio 3:

• Lunchtime Concert: Joanna MacGregor Live from London's Wigmore Hall - Villa-Lobos, Gismonti, Moraes and Piazzolla, 18 September 2006 13:00-14:00

• Through the Night: Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791): Marriage of Figaro Overture; Piano Concerto No 23, K488, in A. Joanna MacGregor (piano) [Recorded in Stavanger Concert Hall on 8 September 2005, 20 July 2006 25:00-25:30

• Performance On 3: Bath International Music Festival - Joanna MacGregor, Andy Sheppard and the Britten Sinfonia 6 June 2006 19.30-21.30

• Performance on 3: Bath International Music Festival 2006 - Joanna MacGregor, Brian Eno and Bath Camerata, 1 June 2006 19:30-21:00

• Sunday Gala: Bath International Music Festival - solo recital, Sunday 21 May 2006 14:00-15:30

• Lunchtime Concert Second of four concerts by members of Britten Sinfonia. Pieces by Dowland, Gismonti, Yarde, Piazzolla. With Joanna MacGregor (piano), Jason Yarde (saxophone) 5/4/06

• Big Band Special: Chelsea Festival, featuring the BBC Big Band with pianist Joanna MacGregor. Radio Two 24 October 2005

• Performance on 3: Ulster Orchestra - Gershwin and the Russian Gold (Joanna MacGregor soloist on Gershwin: Piano Concerto), 22 September 2005 19:30-21:30

• Hear and Now A recital from this year's City of London Festival by pianist Joanna MacGregor, celebrating American music ranging from John Cage to Nina Simone and Thelonious Monk. 13.8.05

• In Tune: Joanna Macgregor and Andy Sheppard, 15 June 2005 19:00-19:19

• Hear and Now: City of London Festival - solo recital, 13 August 2005 23:30-1:00

• Lunchtime Concert: Music by Bach and Shostakovich, 18 January 2005 13:00-14:00

• Lunchtime Concert Recital by pianist Joanna MacGregor, Bach: Goldberg Variations 24 May 2004

• Performance on 3 Pianist Joanna MacGregor directs the Britten Sinfonia, Andy Sheppard (saxophones) and Shri Sriran (tablas). The programme includes works by Louis Hardin and Bach's The Art of Fugue 24 November 2003

• Lunchtime Concert Direct from the Wigmore Hall. Joanna MacGregor (piano), Andy Sheppard (saxophone) and Aref Durvesh (tabla) play music by Dowland, Ligeti, Messiaen and Chick Corea (Live) 16.9.02

• Hear and Now Cheltenham Festival of Music by soprano Valdine Anderson, pianist Joanna MacGregor and Sinfonia 21 under Martyn Brabbins. Music includes the world premiere of Julian Anderson's `Shir hashrim' and Jonathan Harvey's Bird Concerto with Pianosong. 14 July 2001

• Lunchtime Concert Live from London's Wigmore Hall. Joanna MacGregor (piano). Barber: Excursions, Op 20. Crumb: A Little Suite for Christmas, AD1979. Traditional arr MacGregor: Russian Folk Songs. Stravinsky: Three movements from `Petrushka'. 2 April 2001

• BBC Proms 2000. Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London. Joanna MacGregor (piano), Ensemble Bash, Aref Durvesh (tabla) 18 July 2000

• Lunchtime Concert A recital given at St George's, Brandon Hill, Bristol by pianist Joanna MacGregor. Byrd: Hugh Aston's Ground. Ades: Traced Overhead. Dowland: Forlorn Hope Fancye. Birtwistle: Harrison's Clocks. Bach: Contrapunctus II (The Art of Fugue). Nancarrow: Three Studies for player piano. Matthew Fairclough: Altered Ends, Revealed Beginnings. Somel Satoh: Incantation II. Cage: Water Music. Joanna MacGregor: Dance It. Jonathan Harvey: Tombeau de Messiaen. Bach: Allemande (Partita in D, BWV828). Alistair Nicholson: 42nd Street. 30 January 2000

• Lunchtime Concert from St George's, Brandon Hill, Bristol. Joanna MacGregor (piano). Ives: Bad Resolutions and Good; Three Page Sonata. Cage: Sonatas for prepared piano Nos 14 and 15. Cowell: Aeolian Harp; The Snows of Fujiyama. Cage: Sonatas for prepared piano Nos 2 and 5. Gershwin, arr Finnissy: Nashville Nightingale. Cage: Sonatas for prepared piano Nos 7 and 12. Copland: Variations. (Inventing America) 12 June 1998

• The Gershwin Songbook Pianist Joanna MacGregor plays the composer's arrangements of his own songs, including `'S Wonderful', `Oh, Lady Be Good' and `I Got Rhythm'. 2 May 1998

• BBC Proms 97 Joanna MacGregor (piano), Ensemble Bash. Trad, arr Ensemble Bash: Yaa yaa kole. Steve Reich: Music for Pieces of Wood. Cage: Sonatas 2 and 5 for prepared piano. Orphy Robinson: Suite d'Lorenzo. Cage: Sonatas 14 and 15 for prepared piano. Frederic Rzewski: Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues. Django Bates: The Catering Trade (first London performance). 23 July 1997

• Joanna MacGregor. Piano recital. Berg: Sonata, Op 1. Schoenberg: Six Little Pieces, Op 19. Four Broadway Arrangements - Harold Arlen, arr Django Bates: It's only a paper moon. Cole Porter, arr Gary Carpenter: Love for sale. Jerome Kern, arr Michael Finnissy: Can't help lovin' dat man. Al Dubin, arr Alasdair Nicholson: 42nd Street. 6 January 1995

• 1994 Bath International Festival Joanna MacGregor (piano) performs Bach: Pieces from the Anna Magdalena Notebook. John Woolrich: Piano Books 3 and 4 (world premiere). Satie: Gnossiennes Nos 1 and 5; Gymnopedies Nos 1 and 3. Gorecki: Piano Sonata No 1, Op 6. Thelonius Monk: Round Midnight; Monk's Point. Nina Simons: Good Bait. 22 9 June 1994

• BBC Lunchtime Concert Live from St John's, Smith Square, London Joanna MacGregor (piano). Bach French Suite No 5 in G (BWV 816). Nancarrow Prelude and Blues. Satie Sports et divertissements. Debussy Six Etudes. 28 February 1994

• BBC Proms BBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor Mark Wigglesworth, with Gwyneth Jones (soprano), Joanna MacGregor, (piano), Cynthia Millar (ondes martenot), live from the Royal Albert Hall, London. Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod (Tristan and Isolde) 30 July 1993

• Jazz at the Bath Festival Recorded in the Guildhall, it features Human Chain (Django Bates, keyboards and tenor horn; Iain Ballamy, saxophones; Stuart Hall, bass; Martin France, drums) with pianist Joanna MacGregor in specially commissioned music by Django Bates and, in between, MacGregor playing solo in pieces by Nancarrow, Cowell, Ligeti and Rzewski. During the interval, Joanna MacGegor talks about her venture into jazz and improvised music. 10 July 1993

• Joanna MacGregor. (piano). Bach: French Suite No 5. Hugh Wood: Three Pieces, Op 5. Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales. Chopin: Ballade No 4 in F minor, Op 52. December 1992

• The Proms: Hugh Wood Piano Concerto premiere, Royal Albert Hall, 10 September 1991

[edit] Radio interviews

Interviews on BBC Radio 3

• In Tune: Interview about role and musical choices as the artistic director of this Bath Festival 2006. 18 May 2006 17:00-19:30

• Morning Performance. Tommy Pearson talks to pianist Joanna MacGregor and introduces her recordings. Music by Bach, trad African, Fairclough, Satoh, Satie, Monk, Gillespie/Dameron, Andrew Toovey, Cage 11 December 2002

• The Music Machine. Tommy Pearson talks to pianist Joanna MacGregor about her life and career. 6 May 1994

• The pianist Joanna MacGregor and composer Hugh Wood talk about Wood's piano concerto whose premiere MacGregor is about to perform at the proms. MacGregor: Piano part of the concerto is absolutely enormous, structually vast. On hearing rehearsal husband said it was as if Messiaen walked into a jazz bar. Wood: Hadn't collaborated very much with MacGregor. Writing went very smoothly for a slow worker. MacGregor: Made decision early on to play with the music - takes pressure off players and conductors. Have always wanted to work together - go back a long way to when Wood was her tutor at Cambridge and he was berating her over Palestrina and Beethoven. Wood: Dreams often come true, and come true in a very nice way. 10 September 1991

• The Works: Joanna MacGregor 19 May 1989

Interviews on BBC Radio 4

• Great Lives: Joanna MacGregor on Nina Simone 19 September 2006 16.30-17:00

• Front Row: Bath International Music Festival 2006

• Front Row: Musicians setting up their own labels 22 February 2005 19.15 - 19.45

• Front Row: The Art of Fugue 17 November 2003 19.15 - 19.45

• Desert Island Discs: Joanna MacGregor 1 June 1997

[edit] Television

• The South Bank Show: Joanna MacGregor (2001) Documentary about concert pianist Joanna MacGregor, following her during her latest recording sessions and interviews in which she talks about the influences of particular composers on her career.

• Forty Eight Preludes and Fugues BBC TWO. No. 14 10/10/2000, No. 15 30/8/2000, No. 16 21/8/2000, No. 17 16/8/2000, No. 18 31/8/2000, No. 19 3/10/2000, No. 20 17/8/2000, No. 22 17/8/2000, No. 23 5/8/2000, No. 24 15/8/2000.

• Last Night of the Proms. Featured soloist.

• Strings, Bows, and Bellows BBC TWO. "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" by Frederic Rzewski (16/10/1994), "Autumn in Warsaw" by György Ligeti (30/10/1994), "Third Construction" by John Cage (23/10/1994), "Sin Medida" by Julio D'Escrivan (06/11/1994), "Sonata for Piano and Cello" by Alfred Schnittke (20/11/1994), "Falling" (04/12/1994), "De Profundis" with James Crabb (29/04/1995), "Uninterrupted Rests" by Toru Takemitsu (22/04/1995), "Piano Sonata" with James MacMillan (06/05/1995), and "Tentle Moments" with Django Bates (13/05/1995).

• Soundbites BBC TWO 14/11/1992 Joanna MacGregor playing Erroll's Blues and Erroll's Bounce by Erroll Garner.

• Omnibus at the Proms: Pictures at an Exhibition BBC TV 30/08/1991

• Making It. Documentary following three talented young instrumentalists, fresh out of London music colleges, as they take first steps towards establishing solo career. Includes Joanna MacGregor touring North Devon village halls. Granada, 16 November 1986 10.30pm.

[edit] Other links

• Joanna MacGregor's concert schedule
• Homepage of Joanna MacGregor and the Sound Circus record label
• Bath International Music Festival
• Biography at Ingpen & Williams
• Biography at Bach-Cantatas.com
• Biography at Musicianguide.com
• Cross Border outline at British Council site
• Bio and links at Answers.com
• PDF of Django Bates' programme notes for Paper Moon
• Bio at eNotes.com