Terence Allbright
Classical Piano Tutor
About
Terence Allbright was born in Northampton where he taught himself to play the piano and to compose. He became a teenage organist and choirmaster, then studied piano and composition in London and at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he was Organ Scholar.
Terence was Piano Adviser to the now-extinct Inner London Education Authority and joint Head of Piano at the Authority’s Centre for Young Musicians; as well as an enjoyable stint in a soap factory and a less enjoyable spell as a hotel night porter, he has taught at Coventry Music School, at Seaford College and at Chichester College, and was Artistic Director of the Petworth Festival for eight years.
His solo performances include repertoire from the 16th century to the present, and he has twice performed all 53 pieces in Raynaldo Hahn’s Le Rossignol Eperdu – a feat which the Reynaldo Hahn Association director called ‘a marathon and a world first’. Terence has played in Mexico and Paris, all over South-East Asia, and in The Long Room at Lord’s, with mezzo-soprano Ann Murray, with baritone Stephen Roberts, and with Chinese soprano Violet Chang. He has very fortunate in his song recital partners who have also included sopranos Felicity Lott, Jane Manning and Jacquelyn Fugelle; mezzo Susan Legg, tenors Andrew Wicks and Neil Jenkins and Phillip Langridge, and baritones Giles White and Michael Pearce. He has given many programmes of words and music – especially with actor-readers Gabriel Woolf, Susan Jameson and Simon Brett; and a favourite platform partner for many years was the late Jill Balcon.
The British Music Society’s review of Terence’s recording with Stephen Roberts of Somervell’s Maud cycle declared “Allbright’s pianism is superb throughout”, and in a Daily Telegraph review of a Schumann song recital at Cadogan Hall Ivan Hewitt said “it was the beautiful way accompanist Terence Allbright played the tiny, pregnant postlude to each song that made the experience truly profound”. He has given many concerts of chamber music, especially with strings, but most recently with trumpeter Fraser Tannock and in piano & organ programmes with Timothy Ravalde..
Among his early compositions are about 50 scores for BBC Radio Drama, but a prolonged bout of composer’s block led him to discard everything up to 1988 and to begin again. Recent works include …isms for piano, two Trios for violin, cello & piano, Manga for bass clarinet & piano, and Snapshots for ensemble. He is currently working on Wondrous Machine – a set of toccatas for organ – and “Everything starts with a Dot” for ensemble.
www.terenceallbright.com