ROBERT FINLEY

AGE 72  I  NORTHBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS  I  UNITED STATES
ELECTRONICS ENGINEER (RETIRED)

Robert Finley was born in Hull, England, and studied electronic engineering at the University of Sussex. After graduation he worked as an engineer in the United Kingdom and United States. He was a junior exhibitioner at Trinity College of Music in London and gained the ARCM diploma with Honors at the Royal College of Music. In 1980, he immigrated to the United States. He took part in the first Cliburn Amateur Competition in 1999, as well as others in the United States and Europe, taking first prize in the Yamaha Pianist Magazine Competition (UK) and reaching the finals in Warsaw (Chopin), Colorado Springs, and Washington. He has given recitals in Paris, London, Israel, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Buenos Aires, Budapest, Bayreuth, Warsaw, and Yokohama, Japan. He has performed concertos by Liszt, Chopin, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich with orchestra and, earlier this year, played Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Brockton Symphony Orchestra. He is the founder and president of the Boston International Piano Competition for highly talented amateur pianists, which takes place every two years since 2001.

Repertoire

Preliminary Round

BACH–PETRI “Sheep may safely graze”
FAURÉ Impromptu No. 3 in A-flat Major, op. 34
BRAHMS Hungarian Dance No. 2 in D Minor

Semifinal Round 

CHOPIN Nocturne in B Major, op. 62, no. 1
LISZT Au bord d’une source
SCRIABIN Fantasy in B Minor, op. 28
GRIEG Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, op. 65, no. 6

Final Round 

TCHAIKOVSKY Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, op. 23 (III)