Jane Coop

Coop, Jane Austin

Jane Austin Coop, pianist, teacher (b at Saint John, NB 18 Apr 1950). Coop spent her childhood in Calgary and studied with Alexandra Munn and Gladys Egbert; she later (1968-72) studied in Toronto with Anton KUERTI, winning the CBC Talent Festival in 1970 and receiving her artist diploma (Toronto) in 1971, and a B Mus (Toronto) in 1972. She later studied with Peter Feuchtwanger (London) and Leon Fleisher (Baltimore), continuing to work with Fleischer until 1976. She gave her debut at the St Lawrence Centre (Toronto) in 1973 and in 1975 was winner of the Washington International Competition. In the 1970s she appeared with various orchestras, including the Toronto Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic and CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra. She gave her UK debut at Wigmore Hall (London) in 1979 and her major US debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1980. Since 1996 she has been a regular member of the faculty of the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival (Blue Hill, Maine), and in 1997 she gave recitals at Alice Tully Hall (Lincoln Centre, NY) and at Salle Gaveau (Paris).

In 1980 Coop joined the faculty at UBC, continuing a vigorous career as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras, appearing, for example, in New York, London, Paris, Brussels, Warsaw, Moscow, Kiev, St Petersburg (Leningrad), Prague and Budapest, as well as in many cities in Canada and the US. She has also been active as a chamber music player (eg, with the Purcell, ORFORD and Colorado string quartets) and an accompanist (playing for Ingemar Korjus, Rosemarie Landry and Catherine ROBBIN, among others). She has often appeared on radio (both in Canada and elsewhere) and on television, and has premiered a number of Canadian works (by John BECKWITH, Stephen Chatman, Jean COULTHARD and others).

The 1990s have seen Coop extend her tours to the Orient, first in 1991 (in Japan, at the festival marking the opening of the new Canadian embassy) and again in 1994 (with concerts in Hong Kong, China and Japan, as well as some other public master classes). In Vancouver in 1994-95 she performed with Andrew Dawes, all of the Beethoven sonatas for piano and violin, both playing the works again in Toronto in 1995-96. Her recent focus on Beethoven has been particularly important for Coop, whose repertoire centres on the late 18th century (especially Haydn sonatas and Mozart concerti), the early 19th century and 20th century. Continuing to record (she had 10 CDs out by 1999, with repertoire from Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and 20th century composers) as well as to perform widely, she has developed a significant reputation as an artist of insight, splendid musicianship and technical fluency whose seriousness and integrity of approach to her scores produces results that are commanding in every respect.