Leslie Howard

Leslie John Howard (born 29 April 1948) is an Australian pianist, musicologist and composer. He is best known for being the only pianist to have recorded the complete solo piano works of Franz Liszt, a project which included more than 300 premiere recordings. He has been described by The Guardian as "a master of a tradition of pianism in serious danger of dying out". Biography Howard was born in Melbourne the eldest of four children. His brother William is a cellist. Howard's ability to recall anything by ear, and perfect pitch, was first cited in Melbourne newspaper The Herald, when he was 5 years old. At the age of 5, he performed for Fox Movietone News, and at the age of 9 on Australian national television. His mature debut as a pianist came at the age of 13, with Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2. He learned the oboe at an early age, and has even performed Mozart's Oboe Concerto. He attended Monash University in Melbourne to study English, but by the end of his first year had been invited to lecture the post-graduate students on advanced counterpoint and theory. His post-graduate music studies were completed in Italy, where he studied with Guido Agosti.