|
The American pianist, William Corbett-Jones, studied at the University of Southern California, the Juilliard School, the San Francisco Conservatory, and the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy. He was a Fulbright Scholar to Austria and also the recipient for three consecutive years of the Alfred Hertz Memorial Scholarship from the University of California at Berkeley. His private teachers include Adolph Baller, Alexander Lieberman, Egon Petri, Lili Kraus, and Dario de Rosa, pianist of the Trio di Trieste at the Accademia Chigiana, Siena, Italy. He has audited master-classes given by Olga Samaroff, Ernest Bloch, Pablo Casals, Rosina Lhevinne, Lotte Lehmann, Ilona Kabos, Janos Starker, Christoph Eschenbach, Malcolm Frager, Jean-Phillpe Collard, Adele Marcus and Guido Agosti. Doctoral Equivalency established in 1973 at San Francisco State University.
William Corbett-Jones has performed throughout the USA, Canada, Mexico and Central America, Europe, Africa ,Australia, New Zealand , the Philippines, Taiwan, and Singapore as recitalist, soloist with Orchestra and in collaboration with internationally renowned colleagues. His concertizing in Europe has included recitals in most of the major capitals, with the Lausanne and Winterthur Orchestras in Switzerland, and with the Florentine Orchestra del Maggio Musicale three times under the direction of Kurt Masur, famed conductor of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also been soloist on eight occasions with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Corbett-Jones has performed for the BBC, Hilversum, Basel, Paris, Brussels, Lausanne, Cologne and Istanbul radios, in addition to many live performances on local television and radio stations KQED and KPFA, and has often appeared at festivals such as the Salzburg Chamber Music Festival and the Meiringen Festival in Switzerland. He has also toured in Greece. Corbett-Jones has presented cycles of the 32 Piano Sonatas of L.v. Beethoven and Schubert and the complete solo works of Frédéric Chopin and W.A. Mozart, all from memory, at three universities. He has also performed the Complete Piano Chamber Music of L.v. Beethoven, Johannes Brahms and Schubert, Béla Bartók and Igor Stravinsky, plus all the Violin and Piano Sonatas of W.A. Mozart, J.S. Bach and Grieg. He has made five trips to China and has taught and concertized in several cities including Shanghai and Beijing, where he gave master classes and a recital at the Central Conservatory in 2004.
With Henri Temianka and the Paganini Quartet William Corbett-Jones made four films on musical form at the USC film department. In performed several major chamber works, including three quintets. These films, which were funded by the Ford Foundation were shown nationally on public television. Also with Henri Temianka and the Temianka Little Symphony he had two American tours (over 100 concerts).
William Corbett-Jones was soloist at the Bach Festival of Kalamazoo, where he performed and conducted two J.S. Bach Concerti. In 1991 he was director of the American Liszt Society Festival, which was held in San Francisco. He has Also performed on three cruise ships; the Rotterdam, the Stella Solaris and the QE2. In 1992 he gave a recital, master-class and lecture on W.A. Mozart at the National Music Teachers Convention in Miami. Also in 1992 he was invited by the daughter of famed photographer Ansel Adams to give a recital in their home as a wedding present to her parents on the occasion of their golden wedding anniversary. Also in 1992 while in Singapore, he was invited to give recital in the home of the American Ambassador to Singapore, Mr. Jon Huntsman. In 1999 he taught and performed at the High School Of Music in Damascus, Syria.
William Corbett-Jones has been a member of three distinguished touring chamber music ensembles- the California Trio (with concertmaster Jacob Krachmalnick and principal cellist Robert Sayre of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, The Alma Trio, and the Crown Chamber Players of the University of California at Santa Cruz. With the Alma Trio he was made Artist-in –Residence at USC. He was also music director of the Crown Chamber Players. He was also piano duo partner with the distinguished pianist Sylvia Jenkins and had several tours of the USA and Europe with her.
William Corbett-Jones has also been honored to receive dedications from eminent composers, including Kirke Mechem ( Sonata for Piano), Roger Nixon (Twenty Four Preludes for Piano), John Sharpley (Etude for the Right Hand), and Phelps Dean Witter (Music for Piano).
William Corbett-Jones has participated frequently as a jury member in local and international competitions, and some of his students have been prize winners in international competition. Many of his students have gone on to careers in music. The late Calvin Simmons became conductor of the Oakland Symphony, John Lo Piccolo became conductor of the Helena, Montana Symphony and the Idaho Falls Symphony. Philip Kelsey occupies a high administrative position at the Seattle Opera, Robert Schwartz (D.M.A. Juilliard) concertizes widely and teaches piano at Skyline College. Inara Morgenstern is a member of the SFSU School of Music and Dance faculty. Three of his students are on the faculty of the Community Music Center in San Francisco. Recently, three students have completed doctoral programs at Peabody , the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Iowa. Two of his students, Elenor Barcsak and Kwei-Ling Pomerleau, have served as president of the Marin County Music Teachers Association, and another student, Donna Klein has written an acclaimed biography of America’s first native born famous female concert pianist, Olga Samaroff.
William Corbett-Jones has made numerous recordings. Three LPs for Music Library Recordings feature J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations (BWV 988), 4 Sonatas of Haydn, and 14 Sonatas of Scarlatti. He has made 5 CD's for Cambria Master Recordings Cambria Master Recordings, the most recent of which is a double CD package of solo works and transcriptions of Bach. |
