Valerie Tryon to play at Brott Music Festival

Valerie Tryon will be performing in L.R. Wilson Hall on July 26th as part of the Brott Music Festival.

Tryon is a world-renowned classical pianist known for her recordings of the music of Franz Liszt. She was named McMaster’s first Artist-in-Residence in 1980 and served for many years as an associate professor in the School of the Arts. 

She was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2000 upon her retirement and since then has continued to teach, record and play at concerts and recitals around the world.

The festival, now in its 31st season, is Canada’s largest non-profit orchestral music festival.

In 2016 the McMaster University Library hosted a concert in Convocation Hall to celebrate the donation of her personal archives to the William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections.

The donation tells the story of a woman, British by birth, who travels the world to perform and record, but who considers Hamilton and McMaster her home.

At the beginning of 2018 she was named to the Order of Canada for her contributions to music education and culture.

The youngest student to be admitted to the The Royal Academy, Tryon is a Juno Award winner, a Hamilton Gallery of Distinction inductee and also holds the Harriet Cohen Award for Distinguished Services to Music, and the Franz Liszt Medal from the Hungarian Ministry of Culture for her life-long commitment to, and promotion of, Liszt’s music.

Boris Brott, artistic director of the festival, received an honorary degree from the DeGroote School of Business in 1988. He served as music director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra from 1969 to 1990, and in 2011 he gifted his archives to the University.

Tickets for the concert are available through the festival website.