Geoffrey Shindler OBE, Chairman of the Keyboard Charitable Trust, has announced that the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden’s eminent Music Director, Sir Antonio Pappano, has generously agreed to become the Keyboard Trust’s Patron.
‘Since its foundation in 1991, it has become a tradition for the Keyboard Trust to be associated with musical excellence of the highest calibre. Sir Antonio follows in the footsteps of our co-founder, the late Claudio Abbado and, like him, is totally devoted to the development of talented young musicians.’ Geoffrey Shindler OBE
‘We are all dependent on others,’ said Pappano. ‘As a conductor, I need motivated musicians; and as a pianist, a stage on which to perform. As a freshman, I was lucky enough to be given both by Daniel Barenboim.’
Concurrently with his position at the Royal Opera House, Pappano is Music Director of the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia in Rome. For the Keyboard Trust, for which Italy is a rich source of both beneficiaries and performing opportunities, this is a double gain. ‘And so is Sir Antonio’s involvement with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, one of the major sources of qualified talent whose careers the Trust can help to launch,’ added Shindler.
‘All of which,’ in the words of Nicola Bulgari, the Keyboard Trust’s Honorary President, ‘is ample reason for us to be justly proud to have been chosen by the most youthful, imaginative and distinguished of British and international conductors.’
