Valerie Tryon

Valerie Tryon, a British pianist, was born in Portsmouth, England, where her musical training started during childhood. At nine she toured with the Northern Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and BBC broadcasts featured her playing by age twelve. In 1950 she enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music to study piano with Eric Grant. Between 1955 and 1956 she pursued further lessons in Paris with Jacques Février. She earned a prize at the 1956 Liszt Competition in Budapest, and her 1959 appearance at the Cheltenham Festival drew favorable critical notice. Recitals have taken her throughout Great Britain, Europe, the United States, Canada, and South Africa, while orchestral engagements have included the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and additional ensembles. She relocated to Canada in 1971; in 1976 McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, appointed her associate professor of music, where she later became artist-in-residence in 1980 and received naturalized citizenship in 1986. Her recordings appear on Naxos, Somm, CBC Records, and Marquis Classics.