|
Oswald Russell was born in 1933 in Kingston, Jamaica, son of the popular and respected Jim Russell, long-time Registrar of
Births, Marriages and Deaths in that city. He began his piano studies under the direction of Erna Helps, and then worked
at the Royal Academy in London under the direction of Eric Grant, where he won a First Prize/Gold Medal. Later he studied
in Paris with Jacques Février, and finally at the Juilliard School in New York with Edward Steuermann, also meeting with Leonard
Bernstein and other modern American composers
In 1964, he settled in Geneva, where he studied with Louis Hiltbrand and, at the same time pursued, under the direction
of A.-F. Marescotti, the studies in composition which he had begun in London with Lennox Berkeley
Having been Professor of improvisation at the Geneva Conservatoire and at 'Institut Jacques-Dalcroze', Oswald Russell
is above all a concert performer. He has given concerts worldwide, in Switzerland, France, Austria, Germany, the former Yugoslavia,
England, Spain, Jamaica, the former USSR, the United States, Italy and Canada. Additionally he has directed such distinguished
choreographers as Martha Graham, Agnes DeMille and George Balanchine, and is also a composer for the Jamaican National Dance
Theatre Company. He composed the film score for 'les Vieilles Lunes' presented at the Cannes Festival in 1969.
In April 2002 the 'Three Jamaican Dances' by Oswald Russell were performed in a piano recital at Churchill College, Cambridge
University, UK, by Maxine Franklin, the well-known Jamaican pianist, as part of a programme entitled 'Intercultural Piano
Music for Schools - A Selection'. The pieces are based on Jamaican folk songs. The first is a bright and cheerful dance in
Allegro moderato time. The second, slow and sad, revolves around the folk-song 'Sammy dead' - a lament for a farmer whose
death is blamed on his neighbours' envy of his unusually good harvest. The third develops the lively folk-song 'Rookoombine'
into a fast and brilliant display.
Useful link:
back to top
|
