Roger Lord
Canadian pianist Roger Lord from Moncton, New Brunswick won the First Prize in piano in the Canadian National Festival of Music as well as in the Canadian Music Competition. He was also one of the winners of the Radio-Canada/CBC “Debut” competition and performed 120 concerts for Jeunesses Musicales in Canada and in Europe. His various engagements have since taken him to some of the world’s great cities such as Paris, Oslo, Vienna, Parma, Montreal, Melbourne, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Mexico City, Quito, Cairo, Tunis, Riyadh, Kuala Lumpur, Saigon, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, etc. He has performed as a soloist with symphony orchestras in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.
Hailed as “The Piano Prince of Canada” by the China Daily, some of his performances took place in world renowned venues such as the Great Hall of the People located on Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, the He Luting Auditorium in Shanghai, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Auditorium Niccoló Paganini in Parma, the Cairo Opera House, the Carthage Acropolium in Tunis, the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul, etc. Critics are enthusiastic and acknowledge “his skillful talent, great subtlety, genuine emotional generosity, as well as his grand technical mastery”.
During the 8th International Francophonie Summit in 1999, Mr. Lord was invited to perform a recital for the State Leaders of 52 nations. He also represented Canada as a pianist at the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988 and in various festivals around the world including at the Shanghai International Arts Festival and at the Festival del centro histórico in Mexico City which attracts over one million spectators. In November 2004, he released a critically acclaimed CD of piano music by 19th century Louisiana composer and virtuoso Louis Moreau Gottschalk produced by the SNE label in Montreal. This CD received nominations for an Éloizes Award as well as for an ECMA Award in Canada, and earned the special distinction “Bravo!!!” from Trad Magazine France. In 2008, he received an “Excellence Award” in Music from the New Brunswick Arts Council in Canada.
Pianist Roger Lord travelled to China for the first time in 1999 and gave his first concert with symphony orchestra in the city of Qingtao in Shandong Province. He has now been to China close to 30 times and has performed in most regions and important cities. He was invited to the « Gateway to Music » International Festival in Beijing in 2007, 2009 and 2011 as well as to the Shanghai International Arts Festival in 2014 and to the opening ceremony of the 11th Global Confucius Institute Conference in Kunming as a guest of honor in 2016. In early 2013, he was selected as one of the international guest artists for one of the prestigious Chinese New Year TV Galas in Beijing which was broadcast on Chinese television for hundreds of millions of viewers. In the fall of 2013, he became the “First non-Chinese pianist in the world to release a CD of Chinese piano music” with his CD entitled “Chinese Treasures” which was recorded in the central studio of the China National Radio in Beijing with renowned Chinese producer Shen Yuanzhi. The CD is available on the Canadian label Leaf Music and is distributed by Distribution Plages and Naxos Classics.
Roger Lord studied in Canada at the Université de Moncton, at McGill University, and at the Université de Montréal, as well as in Paris and Strasbourg, France. He also attended special summer sessions of the Moscow Piano Institute in Russia at the Gnessin Music Academy. He has been invited on juries of prestigious national and international piano competitions in Australia, USA, Malaysia, and Canada. He holds a Doctorate in Music and is now Professor of Piano at the Université de Moncton in Canada.
