Peter Donohoe

Pianist, conductor, and percussionist Peter Donohoe gained wide recognition for a silver medal at the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition. He went on to an international career that often features virtuoso repertory and has included conducting several small orchestras as well as performances and recordings as a pianist. His large recording catalog includes many albums of British music, and he has remained active since achieving senior citizen status. He released a pair of albums in 2024, joining the Sacconi Quartet in the piano quintets of Taneyev and Robert Schumann and performing solo on an album of works by Albéniz and Granados. Donohoe was born in Manchester, England, on June 18, 1953. He attended the city's prestigious Chetham's School of Music where -- even though he was only 14 -- teachers urged him to audition at the Royal Manchester College of Music. He was accepted and studied with Derek Wyndham. Donohoe went on to the University of Leeds, studying with Alexander Goehr, but returned to the Royal Manchester College of Music and received degrees in piano and percussion there in 1976. For some time, he was active in both fields; he was the percussionist in a performance of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps conducted by a still-teenaged Simon Rattle, and he appeared on percussion with various British orchestras as well as in rock bands. Finally, he decided to focus on piano, embarking on further study with Yvonne Loriod, Olivier Messiaen, and Charles Rosen, among others. After entering a series of competitions, he took the silver medal at the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Since then, he has had an ongoing bond with Russian audiences. In Britain, Donohoe made debuts at the Purcell Room in London and at Last Night of the Proms in 1979. In 1987, he made his recording debut with an album of Prokofiev piano sonatas on the EMI Classics label. Donohoe has since appeared with major orchestras all over Britain and Ireland, and he was featured at the BBC Proms for 17 years in a row. In 2002, he performed on piano at Rattle's debut performance with the Berlin Philharmonic. Donohoe also launched a conducting career, holding positions with the Northern Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Mill, and the Bath Philharmonia. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2010. Donohoe is notable for the size and range of his recording catalog. He recorded a number of albums for EMI Classics and went on to issue albums on Hyperion, Chandos, and Warner Classics. In the 2000s decade, he was featured on a series of albums of British music on the Naxos label. In 2021, Donohoe issued the fourth in a cycle of the piano sonatas of Mozart on Signum Classics. He moved to Somm for later recordings in that series, and his 2024 recording of Taneyev and Robert Schumann with the Sacconi Quartet was one of a number of chamber music recordings in his catalog. By the time he moved to Chandos for a recording of the Goyescas of Granados and Albéniz's Iberia in 2024, that catalog included well over 60 items. ~ James Manheim, Rovi