Peter Bucknell is a classical violin and viola player. Acclaimed by the Australian press as a brilliant soloist, he was appointed Viola Professor at the State University of New York.
After winning first prize in the Auckland International Viola Congress Competition, and the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Award he was a soloist with orchestras in Pittsburg, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Cologne and New York.
He has given recitals in Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, America and Australia and has performed in London's Wigmore Hall, France's Grange de Meslay, Radio France and in many other European halls. While in Europe, he was loaned the "Mahler Stradivarius" for a European tour. As a chamber musician, his quartet won the Interpretation Prize in the Osaka Competition in 1996. In the US, Bucknell performed live on NPR, toured extensively and taught as a guest at several Universities.
He performed the Australian premiere, broadcast live by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, of Chaconne for Viola and Orchestra by Michael Colgrass. He performed and recorded as solo violist with Apollo's Fire, the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, Les Concerts du Monde, and Los Angeles Musica Viva. He was the principal violist with the Rebel Baroque Orchestra from 1998 to 2009. He appeared as a guest on Jim Henson's The Ghost of Faffner Hall as a member of the Como String Quartet in 1988.
As a member of Danel Quartet, Bucknell has appeared at Wigmore Hall and in many other European halls, and on Radio France.
He was a founding member of the Raw Fish Quartet performing at the George Crumb Festival in New York, concerts in Taiwan and La Jolla and at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. He was a member of the Munich Chamber Orchestra; he recorded with Concerto Köln, and performed with Musica Antiqua Köln.
Background:
Bucknell's former studies on violin were with Russian pedagogue Nelli Shkolnikova and with Nathan Gutman; In Los Angeles, with violist Donald McInnes; in Siena, Italy with Yuri Bashmet; and in Cologne, Germany with Rainer Moog.
Bucknell holds a Doctorate in Music.
