Michael Redshaw - BMus, DMus, ARCM (Hons), LRSM, LTCL
Michael Redshaw graduated in 1970 with a BMus. While he studied he received the University's prestigious Michael J. Savage and Walter Kirby scholarships, and numerous awards. National awards that he received include the National Concerto Competition, and with the Trio Gambroa, the New Zealand Chamber Music Award.
An Associated Board Scholarship and a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council Award in 1971 allowed Michael to further his studies at the Royal College of Music in London, England, where he studied piano, composition, and the harpsichord.
In 1973 Michael won the Royal Amateur Orchestral Society Award; the Concerto Prize at the Royal College; and in 1974 was the recipient of the Hopkinson Gold medal, one of the College's highest awards for pianists. In the same year he made his London debut at the Wigmore Hall, about which the critics commented on his "dexterity and powerful tone". From 1974 to 1978 he was on the piano faculty at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and from 1978 to 1980 he was Assistant Head of Keyboard Studies at the Birmingham School of Music. Until 1993 he was an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.
In 1980 Michael moved to Canada. He settled first in Calgary, then moved to Edmonton in 1986, completing a DMus in 1990 at the University of Alberta. Michael's doctoral thesis was entitled "Characteristic Articulation in the Piano Music of Beethoven: A Performer's Approach." In Edmonton Michael taught as a sessional instructor for the Music Department and Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta, and at The King's University College as well as Alberta College. He appeared frequently in recital throughout Alberta and performed Mozart's Concerto K595 with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Several performances and his latest CD have been broadcast by CBC Radio.
In 1996 Michael moved to Victoria, British Columbia. He is on the piano faculty at the Victoria Conservatory of Music as well as having a large class of students in his private studio. In spite of the major part of his work being devoted to music education, Michael still finds time to give recitals as a soloist and ensemble player. Given the focus of Michael's thesis, he now specialises in Classical/early Romantic era performances on period instruments and owns a small collection of early keyboard instruments. He is a Board member of the Early Music Society of the Islands and was the coordinator of the Society's successful "Festival of Early Keyboard Music" in 2001.
Michael is a highly regarded adjudicator and workshop clinician not only in Canada but also overseas and has the honour of being an Examiner Emeritus for the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto).
In his spare time, Michael enjoys cooking, walking in the ancient rain forests on Vancouver Island, and designing gardens. However, his real love is collecting early keyboards. His collection currently includes a 1805 Broadwood Square, a 1855 Chickering Square, a 1930 Hamburg Steinway, model "C", and a replica of a 1789 Dulcken fortepiano (as shown in the picture, above). Michael uses a 21st-century Roland Digital keyboard to assist him in one of his current projects: making publications of unpublished early keyboard music that still exists in manuscript form.
Other projects that Michael is currently working on are a production of a full score of an unpublished piano concerto from the late 18th century, and copying French fortepiano music from an early edition and preparing it in a modern edition.
