Robert Finley

Robert Finley was born in Hull, England, and is a retired electronics engineer. He began to play the piano at the age of 7, studied at Trinity College of Music in London and with Norma Fisher, Albert Ferber and in the masterclasses of Jorge Bolet, Louis Kentner and Vlado Perlemuter. He studied electronic engineering at the University of Sussex and worked in the UK and USA in the field of telecommunications. He was awarded the ARCM diploma in piano performance with Honours from the Royal College of Music in 1976. He played recitals and concertos in the USA, UK, Russia, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Argentina, Japan and Israel. He is the founder of the Boston Piano Amateurs Association that organizes international piano competitions every two years. He played in piano competitions in the USA and overseas and was a finalist in the 2009 Chopin Piano Amateur Competition in Warsaw Poland, and the joint grand prize winner of the 2012 Yamaha and Pianist Magazine amateur piano competition in Manchester, UK. In 2013 he was invited back to Manchester UK to give a recital at the Chethams School of Music and played the first movement of the Chopin 2nd Piano Concerto with the Manchester Camerata orchestra. In 2008 and 2010 he was a winner of the concerto competition during the Piano Texas Festival in Fort Worth and played the first movement of the Rachmaninoff 1st and 3rd concerti with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. In 2012 he played the Liszt 1st Piano Concerto with the Boston Civic Symphony Orchestra. In 2015 he gave a recital at the Gasteig auditorium in Munich Germany and also two recitals at the Earth Plaza Auditorium in Yokohama Japan. In 2016 he won the 2nd prize at the Piano Bridges Competition in St. Petersburg Russia and gave a recital at the State Academic Capella Auditorium. In 2018 he gave recitals in Bayreuth, Germany, on Liszt’s piano, and in Moscow, Russia, at the Alexander Goldenweiser Museum. In March 2022 he was a guest soloist in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Brockton Symphony Orchestra. He was a semifinalist in the 2022 Van Cliburn Competition for Outstanding Amateurs. In October 2023 he gave a recital at Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth Germany on Richard Wagner’s piano.