Leading New Zealand concert pianist Michael Houstoun has announced he will retire from performing.
Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
In a statement released on his website Houstoun said after almost 50 years as a professional musician, he’s decided to “hang up my fingers” and start a new phase of his life.
He expects his last public performance to be at the end of 2020.
Houstoun hadn’t intended to announce his retirement publicly but said “my musical life has been given to me by my beautiful New Zealand audience and it only seems right to let them know”.
City Gallery opening day March 03, 2018 in Wellington, New Zealand. Photo: Mark Tantrum
He said it has been wonderful to receive the constant support of the audience, which allowed him to make a living as a soloist and chamber musician.
“I resolved early on to always offer something new (at least to me). And so year after year I have prepared new recital programs, new concertos, new chamber works. This has been personally rewarding in a great many ways and I like to think it has been a way to pay back some of the loyal support that has sustained me,” the statement said.
During his career he’s travelled far and wide, performing in great concert halls as well as numerous small towns and a tin shed outside Timaru where he played the Goldberg Variations on the longest hand-built piano in the world.
The public will have opportunities to see him perform in concerts in Kerikeri, Lower Hutt, Palmerston North, Christchurch, Waikanae, Wellington, Dunedin, Wanganui and Manukau planned for this year.
Houstoun did his farewell media interview with RNZ Concert's Eva Radich in 2017, where he answered questions from his audience. He discussed dealing with being diagnosed with focal dystonia in 2001, which affected the use of his right hand and why he avoids playing Haydn.
RNZ Concert is broadcasting a four-part series of the complete ‘Preludes and Fugues’ by JS Bach, performed by Houstoun on Tuesday nights from 5th February. In the first programme he talks with RNZ Concert producer Tim Dodd about the challenges of the mission.
