Tozer, Geoffrey

piano

Geoffrey Tozer (born November 1954) is an Australian pianist of great international renown. He was born in the Indian Himalayas.

In 1962, at the age of eight, Tozer performed J. S. Bach’s Concerto No. 5 in F Minor with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in a concert that was televised nationally by the ABC. In 1964, in Melbourne’s Nicholas Hall, he made his concert debut with the Astra Orchestra under George Logie Smith.

After studying in Australia and London he made his European debut at a BBC Promenade Concert in the Royal Albert Hall.
He performed at the inaugural concert of the Melbourne Concert Hall in 1982.

In May 2001 Geoffrey Tozer was the first Western artist to perform the Yellow River Concerto in China. Tozer has championed the recordings of many under-recorded composers, such as Alan Rawsthorne, McEwen, Erich Korngold, Roberto Gerhard, Ottorino Respighi, Percy Grainger, and Nikolai Tcherepnin. At one Berlin Festival, Tozer gave an all-Artur Schnabel concert, in the presence of the entire Schnabel family; he has also recorded Schnabel’s music.

Geoffrey Tozer is a noted improvisor. He has ended formal recitals by improvisations using themes and styles suggested by the audience: Donizetti, Bellini, Rossini, Verdi, Wagner, Bartók, Piazzolla, Cage, Satie, Gershwin and Brahms simultaneously, and many others.