Swiss Global Artistic Foundation

Oliver Poole is a pianist and composer with remarkable gifts for improvisation.

Mr Poole won first prize and a reputation as a budding concert pianist with performances of Haydn and Bach piano concertos at the Hastings festival, age seven. By age eight he had two EPTA awards as the most promising young pianist in Europe, the title Kent Young Pianist of the Year and performed with the National Youth Orchestra. His repertoire by that time included three major piano concertos, Mozart sonatas, Chopin Etudes, Bach preludes and fugues. He performed at Nimbus Records and Claves Records, recorded live.

At age nine Mr Poole went to study with the legendary Russian pianist Lazar Berman in Italy. In 2009 he was awarded the prestigious Founders' Scholarship at the Royal College of Music, London, for piano and composition studies. He receives regular coaching from the prominent Russian pianist Dimitri Alexeev.

As a gifted improviser, Mr Poole enjoys live interaction, often improvising on the original themes provided by the audience. He lectures on music and looks for new ways of promoting classical music in the younger generation, especially in school children.

As a composer, Mr Poole writes in various styles. His performed music includes pieces for solo piano, string quartets, a wind trio, orchestral works and concertino for two pianos. Concertino was premiered at the International Ninios Geniales Symposium in Granada, Spain, in 2004. His solo piano works, in particular "Altitude", "The Fields, the Map Never Showed", "Vocalise" and "Prelude" dedicated to Steve Irwin, written in 2006, are receiving much positive acclaim and are available to download from itunes and other online music stores. He has many interests outside music, such as sailing, philosophy, astronomy, religion, history and visual arts, and creates his own textures and sounds in order to develop music further into synthesis of all genres. Thus wider audiences are reached.

One of Mr Poole's Lisbon concerts was recorded live by Portuguese radio and broadcast throughout Europe. The 2008-2009 season has taken him to Russia as he stepped in at the last moment to replace an indisposed soloist to perform the Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue with the Russian Philharmonic, and was immediately re-invited to close the season with the Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini.

The 2009-2010 season brought him to St Petersburg for the first live performance of Anton Rubinstein's Piano Concerto No. 3 in over 80 years with the St Petersburg Philharmonic. The jubilee concert took place in the same hall and on the same day as when Anton Rubinstein premiered it 150 years ago. Extensive Trans-Siberian tour followed, with temperatures below 40 degrees C, where Oliver performed two concertos on the same evening, including Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, Rhapsody in Blue and the Rubinstein.

The Tuscan Sun Festival in Italy and the first classical Serenata Festival in the UK have become the most exciting opportunities to celebrate Mr Poole's dedication to virtuoso recitals, with the Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the Horowitz transcriptions of Liszt and the Brassin transcriptions of Wagner. A dedicated chamber musician, recent performances include accompanying singers at a Royal Albert Hall Classical Coffee Morning concert. He is a guest soloist at the Northern Lights series with Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Guernsey Symphony Orchestra.

Focusing on contemporary concerto repertoire, Rodion Shchedrin, Philip Glass and others – will aid Mr Poole’s continuous efforts, both as a composer and a performer, in promoting new music.

An advocate for charities, Mr Poole has long been performing concerts for the benefit of the UNICEF Children in Need Fund, also for Maison Million and DownSideUp Appeals. After his recent performances in Siberia, he has launched his own charity, "Siberian Appeal", to help leukemia children and intensive care units. Funds are being raised through his concerts. The Siberian Appeal Facebook group numbers over a thousand members, with many top artists. News 24, Russian TV, BBC and organisers of the venues have been incredibly supportive. Mr Poole's goal is to raise funds and awareness for a new children’s hospital in Altay. He has published A Petition to the Russian Government with the target to collect 10,000 signatures. www.thepetitionsite.com/1/siberianappeal

Mr Poole is an artist of the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation.

In 2010 he won the first UK Serenata Stars title.

Youtube clips of Mr Poole's performances and compositions.

The Facebook Group for his charity "The Siberian Appeal". Pictures, news, info and how to donate, regularly updated.

Mr Poole on MySpace!