David Helfgott
| David Helfgott | |
|---|---|
| Born |
19 May 1947 Melbourne, Australia |
| Occupation | musician |
| Spouse(s) | Clara Papp Gillian Muray |
David Helfgott (born 19 May 1947) is an Australian concert pianist. Helfgott's life inspired the Academy Award-winning film Shine, in which he was played by Geoffrey Rush and Noah Taylor
Helfgott was born in Melbourne to Polish Jewish parents Rachel (née Granek) and Elias Peter Helfgott. 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 scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied under the pianist Cyril Smith for three years. The awards he won at the RCM included the Dannreuther Prize for Best Concerto Performance for his performance of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3, and the Marmaduke Barton Prize.
...
Wikipedia