Leslie Howard (musician)

Leslie Howard
Dr. Leslie Howard in Shanghai, China, on 15 December 2009.
Background information
Born	(1948-04-29) 29 April 1948 (age 68) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Genres	Classical
Occupation(s)	Pianist and composer
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1953–present

Leslie John Howard (born 29 April 1948) is an Australian pianist and composer. He is best known for being the only pianist to have recorded the complete solo piano works of Franz Liszt, a project which included more than 300 premiere recordings. He has been described by The Guardian as "a master of a tradition of pianism in serious danger of dying out".

Howard was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1948, the eldest of four children. His brother William is a cellist.

Howard's ability to recall anything by ear, and perfect pitch, was first cited in The Herald, Melbourne, when he was 5 years old. At the age of 5, he performed for Fox Movietone News, and at the age of 9 on Australian national television. His mature debut as a pianist came at the age of 13, with Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2. He learned the oboe at an early age, and has even performed Mozart’s Oboe Concerto.

He attended Monash University in Melbourne to study English, but by the end of his first year had been invited to lecture the post-graduate students on advanced counterpoint and theory. His post-graduate music studies were completed in Italy, where he studied with Guido Agosti.

He has lived in London since 1972, preferring its climate to that of his native country; he has both Australian and British nationality.

In 1987 Howard became an instructor at the Guildhall School of Music. He often gives masterclasses at the Royal College of Music and Royal Academy of Music.

He frequently appears with promising student pianists to help further their careers. Examples are performances of Liszt's arrangement for two pianos of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with Coady Green; piano duets of Percy Grainger with Michael Brownlee-Walker; and conducting a performance of Shostakovich's First Piano Concerto in London's Wigmore Hall, and then again at the Royal Festival Hall for the Pearl Awards, with a 9-year old Chinese pianist as soloist.