Internationally acclaimed pianist Graham Caskie is renowned particularly for his interpretations of the piano music of Brahms and Debussy. Recitals have included most works of Debussy - notably including both Books of Preludes and from Brahms the Sonatas, the complete Klavierstucke and chamber music works. He is also a keen advocate of contemporary music, jazz, ragtime and improvisation, commissioning several works from leading composers including Stephen Goss, Matthew King, John Cooney and Marcel Baudet. His first professional recording, on the Metier label, included works by Michael Tippett, John McCabe, Paul Patterson and Nigel Clarke, working closely with all these composers prior to the recording. Marcel Baudet’s El Mestengo was premiered and broadcast live from the Concertgebouw and subsequently performed in concert at the Bimhuis, in Amsterdam.
Graham Caskie’s collaborations with composer Stephen Goss began in 2003 with an ideal insomnia, a group of four short pieces for solo piano. Subsequently Caskie’s CD recording Préludes and Interludes, (2008) was a collaboration with Stephen Goss and artist Brian Dunce. Brian Dunce created a performance installation of 12 large canvases, each inspired by Debussy’s Préludes, Premier Livre to accompany recitals given by Graham Caskie. Stephen Goss’s Interludes, to be performed in amongst the Préludes, complement and contrast with both Brian Dunce’s paintings and Debussy’s music. Rather than being designed to stand shoulder to shoulder with Debussy’s timeless masterpieces, the paintings and Interludes are intended to act more like footnotes or asides, whose function is to pay fleeting homage. The first complete performance of Préludes and Interludes was given at Riverhouse Barn, Walton-on-Thames in 2008.
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Current chamber music partnerships include a duo with cellist Thomas Carroll, introducing into their programmes new works specially written for them, including two works by Stephen Goss, Caught Between (Cello and Piano) and Concerto for Five, a Concerto for Piano, Violin, Cello, Saxaphone and Double Bass) premiered in London at Cadogan Hall with the Orpheus Foundation Orchestra. Graham Caskie and Thomas Carroll have also recorded the Chopin Sonata for Cello and Piano, for Cadenza records.
Graham Caskie was born in Darlington in 1967. He studied at the Birmingham Conservatoire and Royal Academy of Music under Frank Wibaut, Hamish Milne and Alexander Kelly. Graham Caskie has previously taught at The Yehudi Menuhin School and Chetham’s School of Music and now currently teaches at The Royal Academy of Music and The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Arresting, thoughtful and energetic…
THE SUNDAY TIMES
Caskie is a model of poetic subtlety and discretion...
GRAMOPHONE