Pianist Rosemary O’Connor is an active performer and teacher in the Vancouver (Canada) area. She is an avid chamber music collaborator locally with members of the Vancouver Symphony and Opera Orchestras, as well as with national and international musicians. Rosemary co-produces and performs regularly at the Evergreen Cultural Centre’s Chamber Music Series as a member of the Quiring Chamber Players along with guest artists such as Ian Swensen, Anita Krause, Dale Barlthrop , Francois Houle, Andrew Dawes, Catherine French, members of the St. Lawrence Quartet, Vancouver Symphony among many others.
Rosemary has performed solo and chamber music concerts in the US, Canada, Germany, Lithuania, Brussels, Portugal and Italy. Her concerto appearances have elicited reviews such as “Pianist defines Beethoven” in her performance of Beethoven’s 4th Concerto and “She brought audible reactions and a standing ovation with the energy of her performance” in Mozart’s Concerto K. 482 with original cadenzas . Other concerts include soloist with Freiburg Philharmonic, chamber music concerts Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, Music at the Vineyards in Napa Valley, Pender Harbor Festival BC, Chintimini Chamber Music Festival in Oregon, Sundays at 4 from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (live radio broadcast), Midi de Minimes festival in Brussels, Alora Festival in Ontario, Music by the Sea Festival in Victoria (Live stream), and Kay Meek concerts.
Rosemary’s CD recording (ORF label) of Austrian composer Richard Stoehr’s piano music was featured on CBC Radio’s Espace Musique with Alain Lefevre as well as CFRO’s “West Coast Classics”, and ORF Radio in Vienna. She has also produced a CD of viola and piano works as a member of Davidsbündler Duo with her husband Reg Quiring.
Her love for teaching is inspired by her wonderfully varied mentors who include John Perry (University of Southern California, Los Angeles), Nelita True (Eastman School of Music Rochester New York), Robert Levin (Musikhochschule Freiburg, Germany) , Tibor Szasz (Musikhochschule Freiburg) and Vitaly Margulis (University of California, Los Angeles). She held teaching Assistantships at Eastman School and UCLA, and has taught on the faculties at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and Pasadena Conservatory of Music. She is currently on the faculty of Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music and at her private home studio. She has been the Director of the Quiring Chamber Music Camp in Vancouver (held at Vancouver Academy of Music) for the past 8 years.
Rosemary lives in Coquitlam with her husband violist Reg Quiring, and their three children Natalie, Sophia and Gabriel, and their cat Aslan.