Maxine
Franklin was born into a musical family in Kingston, Jamaica. She started playing the piano at age five, and by her
early teens had played full length piano recitals, given broadcasts, and performed the Mozart Piano Concerto in D minor, K466,
with the Jamaica Philharmonic Orchestra.
She
continued her studies in London with a Jamaica Government Scholarship at the Royal College of Music, and later, as a pupil of the distinguished Hungarian pianist and teacher, Lion Kabos.
Maxine Franklin attracted attention in the International music world with recitals, broadcasts
and piano competition successes. She was a prizewinner in the Italian Busoni International Piano Competition and received
a Certificate of Honour in the BBC Mozart Piano Concerto Competition. Her debut at the Wigmore Hall in London received
enthusiastic press reviews. Further London performances at the South Bank drew highly favourable notices, praising her
"authority and individuality as an interpreter over a wide range of piano music" (Daily Telegraph).
She combines teaching with recitals of general repertoire. Recently,
she has focused on works of African, Afro-American and Caribbean-inspired music. She has given recitals of these works
in London for the Horniman Museum series Out of Africa in October, 1998; and the US Festival Towards an African Pianism at
Pittsburgh University in October 1999 and FESAAM at St Louis in March 2001. In August 2001 she gave a recital programme at
Churchill College, Cambridge University. She plans to give a recital of general and Caribbean works at Leighton House, London,
in October 2002. (MF)
