Eric Parkin

Eric Parkin (24 March 1924 – 3 February 2020) was an English pianist.^[1]

Parkin was born in Stevenage and attended Alleyne's Grammar School there.^[2] He studied at Trinity College of Music with the Anglo-French pianist Frank Laffitte and with George Oldroyd. He also studied conducting with Charles Kennedy Scott and composition with Henry Geehl.^[3] He began working in the 1940s as a cocktail pianist at The May Fair Hotel, making his classical debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1948 with a recital of Beethoven and Chopin.^[4]

Parkin quickly became a frequent broadcaster on BBC Radio.^[5] Having met the composer John Ireland he made his Proms debut playing the Ireland Piano Concerto in 1953, with Malcolm Sargent and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.^[6] Although his musical interests spanned the Classical and Romantic periods, he became best known for his recorded performances and recitals of 20th-century British music, including works by William Baines, Arnold Bax, William Blezard, Frank Bridge, Alan Bush, Geoffrey Bush, Peter Dickinson, David Gow, Kenneth Leighton, Billy Mayerl, E J Moeran and Richard Stoker. Later in life he increasingly recorded French and American repertoire, including Poulenc, Roussel, Barber and Copland.^[3][7] He recorded more than 80 albums over his career from the early 1950s onwards, for Argo, Lyrita, Chandos, Priory and Unicorn.^[8]

Parkin was a professor at Trinity College from 1945 to 1958 and from 1964 to 1967.^[2] He then taught piano at Bulmershe College in Reading, Berkshire (later merged with Reading University). He lived with his partner Rees Morgans for 57 years at Greengates Cottage in Watlington, Oxon.^[9] Parkin died on 3 February 2020, aged 95.