Graham Fitch
Personal details
| Nationality | British |
|---|---|
| Languages | English, German, French |
| Qualifications | M.Mus (Manhattan); GRSM (Hons); ARCM (Piano teaching) |
| Rates | £50 per hour |
| Own teaching facilities | Yes |
| Travel | Only exceptionally and depending on area |
| Location | Southfields, SW18 and Central London Studio |
Biography
Graham Fitch was a student of Stephen Savage, Peter Wallfisch and Roger Vignoles at the Royal College of Music, London, during the late 70s, and also studied harpsichord with Ruth Dyson.
At the RCM, he won the Hopkinson Gold Medal for piano playing, and took up a Fulbright Scholarship to complete his studies in the United States with Ann Schein and Nina Svetlanova, participating in weekly masterclasses by Leon Fleisher. He established himself in New York and stayed for seven years, becoming Mme. Svetlanova's teaching assistant at the Mannes College of Music.
In the 90's Graham Fitch taught piano at the Purcell School, Centre for Young Musicians and St. Paul's Girls' School in London, as well as commuting monthly to New York to teach privately. Among his students' many national and international successes are the International Russian Music Piano Competition, BBC Young Artists’ Platform, Royal Overseas League, Derby Concerto Competition, South East Arts and UNISA Overseas Scholarship Competition.
During this time, Graham studied further with Edith Picht-Axenfeld in Germany, and with piano guru Peter Feuchtwanger, making a study of his special exercises.
As a performer, Graham has specialised in the music of the high Baroque (especially Bach, Rameau and F. Couperin), Haydn, Mozart, Chopin and Schumann. He gave all-Bach recital programmes in the Bach year, all-Chopin recitals in the Chopin year, and more recently all-Mozart solo and chamber programmes in the Mozart year. He has performed concertos with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra under Bernhard Gueller.
For the past decade, Graham Fitch was Associate Professor, Head of Piano at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town where he was in high demand as a teacher. He is now available in London as a private teacher.
He has extensive experience as an adjudicator (Cape Town and Bloemfontein Eistedfodds), and as a national and international competition jury member (the Pretoria International Piano Competition, Sanlam National Music Competition, the Kawai Australasian Youth Piano Concerto Competition, and others). He has given masterclasses in the UK (including at the Royal Academy of Music, where he also deputised for Christopher Elton and took the Performers' Class, Chetham's School of Music), USA, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Graham Fitch
