Antony Gray
was educated in Victoria, Australia. He gradu- ated from the Victorian College of Arts where he studied with Roy Shepherd and Stephen McIntyre, winning several awards and prizes, including the Allans Keyboard Award two years running. In 1982 he received a scholarship from the Astra foundation to continue his studies in London with Joyce Rath- bone and Geoffrey Parsons.

Based now in London, he has long been regarded as one of the most inter- esting and communicative performers of his generation. His career to date has encompassed solo and chamber music performances around the world, as well as regular recordings for CD and radio. He has been a (selective) champion of contemporary music and has premiered many pieces written for him. He has also championed many neglected composers such as George Enescu, Dussek and Martinu. From his time at College he has been a champion of many living composers, and his work with Australian composers Malcolm Williamson and John Carmichael has been particularly productive.

Antony Gray was one of ABC Classics’ most prolific recording artists, having recorded fourteen discs of solo piano music for the label, as well as featuring on a recital disc for KNS Classical and a number of other recording projects. Recordings already released are the complete solo piano works of Eugene Goossens, Malcolm Williamson (this recording has been included in a recent survey of 1001 recordings to hear before you die) and John Carmichael, as well as the late piano pieces of Johannes Brahms, a 3 disc set of Bach tran- scriptions, including several written specially for the recording, and a 5 disc set of the complete piano works of Francis Poulenc, including a number of works recorded for the first time, all on ABC Classics.

Antony Gray’s recent Divine Art albums of piano works by Saint-Saëns and the triple album of works by Michael Blake Afrikosmos, have met with great success and glowing reviews.

John Carmichael
was born 1930 in Melbourne, Australia. He studied piano and composition at the University Conservatorium there, followed by two years piano studies with Marcel Ciampi at the Conservatoire National in Paris. Further composition studies followed with Arthur Benjamin and Anthony Milner in London while Carmichael joined the first group of musicians working for the newly established Council for Music Therapy, for whom he introduced music therapy programs at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Netherden Mental Hospital, Surrey. In 1960 he became musical director of the Spanish Dance group Eduardo Y Navarra touring extensively with them both abroad and in Britain; foreign languages are one of his passions – the latest challenge being Chinese.

The album includes duos, solos, a Piano Concerto (exuberant pianism matched with string orchestra, with a Caribbean flavoured final movement), a Piano Trio aspiring towards the light, works designed to bring the viola, regarded by many as the Cinderella of the string instruments, into the spotlight, a Divertimento for flute, oboe, clarinet & piano; overall a varied collection of works with melodic elements being an important feature. Joining this celebration of the potential in new orchestral and chamber music are many of Britain’s most highly talented artists, including pianist Antony Gray whose recent recordings of Saint-Saëns piano music for Divine Art have attracted glowing praise and are the label’s top sellers of 2022.