A visit from Valerie Tryon to the Richmond Concert Society is always an event not to be missed. Valerie has performed many times for the Society and is a Patron.

Her career as a concert pianist started while she was still a child. Before she was twelve she had broadcast for the BBC and was already giving concerts on a regular basis.

Her place among this country’s acknowledged artists was assured when a recital at Cheltenham brought enthusiastic acclaim from the country’s foremost critics.

For a number of years Valerie has been living in Canada and her visits to this country are always awaited with much anticipation. She has played in all the major concert halls and with many of the leading orchestras in this country. In America and Canada she has appeared in Toronto, Montreal, Washington, Pittsburg, Minneapolis and Los Angeles.

Her repertoire is enormous, ranging from Bach to contemporary composers and includes more than 60 piano concertos and a vast amount of chamber music. She has introduced music written for her by Alun Hoddinott and John McCabe. It is in the music of the romantic composers that she is best known especially Chopin, Rachmaninov and Liszt. When she recorded a few years ago the complete Chopin Ballades and Scherzi for CBC Records the distinguished music critic of the New York Times described it as ‘the best Chopin recording of the past decade’. More recently when recordings of the Ballades were assessed Valerie’s recording came to the top of the list.

A noted interpreter of Debussy and Ravel she has given several cycles consisting of five recitals covering the complete piano works of these composers. Her recent recording of the complete piano music of Ravel has been much admired.

A busy recording artist, Valerie has recently released a CD of music by Mendelssohn, a double CD album of Liszt, and a CD covering a number of Scarlatti sonatas. Her latest recording includes the Mozart Sonata we hear in her RCS programme as well as a Schubert sonata and the great C major Fantasie of Schumann. A double CD covering music by Chopin is awaiting release.