Ronald Turini

Who is Ronald Turini?

Ronald Turini is a Canadian pianist. He made his professional debut at age ten, with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. At sixteen, and holding a scholarship from the Conservatoire de Musique du Quebec, Turini met Vladimir Horowitz. Horowitz was sufficiently impressed to take him on as a student.

In 1961, Turini made his American debut at Carnegie Hall. That same year, he performed Schumann's Piano Concerto with the Montreal Symphony under Zubin Mehta, in which Turini was praised for his "passion and power" and "placid sensitivity".

Gramophone, reviewing his 1965 RCA Red Seal recording, lauded Turini as "a pianist of uncommon ability" with a "range of colour...which straightaway marks him out from so many pianists".

Turini made his Boston debut in 1969 for the Peabody Mason Concert series, and returned in 1971. He was the first Canadian artist to win a prize at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition of Belgium, at the Concorso Pianistico Internazionale Ferruccio Busoni and at the International Competition for Musical Performers in Geneva.

A founding member of Quartet Canada, Ronald Turini was Professor Emeritus of piano performance at the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario until 2008.