Claire and Antoinette Cann (born 1963), known professionally as the Cann Twins, are British identical twin sisters and professional pianists who perform together as a

piano duo According to the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', there are two kinds of piano duet: "those for two players at one instrument, and those in which each of the two pianists has an instrument to themself." In American usage the former is ...

Early life and education

Claire and Antoinette Cann were born in England in 1963. They studied at the

Watford School of Music Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

with Jean Merlow and Robert Pell, before progressing to the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

where they studied with

Phyllis Sellick Phyllis Sellick, OBE (16 June 191126 May 2007)John Amis, Obituaries''Phyllis Sellick'' Guardian UnlimitedObituaries''Phyllis Sellick'' The Daily TelegraphObituariesPhyllis Sellick, The Independent was a British pianist and teacher, best known fo ...

and latterly received the President's Rosebowl. They won scholarships to Banff School of Fine Arts, Canada.

Career

Performing

Since turning professional in the 1980s they have toured extensively throughout Europe, Canada, USA, New Zealand and the Far East. They perform frequent concerts in the U.K. at venues including the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

, the International Series at the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...

Barbican Hall The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exh ...

Fairfield Halls Fairfield Halls is an arts, entertainment and conference centre in Croydon, London, England, which opened in 1962 and contains a theatre and gallery, and a large concert hall regularly used for BBC television, radio and orchestral recordings. F ...

Croydon,

Colston Hall Bristol Beacon, previously known as Colston Hall, is a concert hall and Grade II listed building on Colston Street, Bristol, England. It is owned by Bristol City Council. Since 2011, management of the hall has been the direct responsibility of ...

, Bristol,

St. David's Hall St David's Hall (Welsh: ''Neuadd Dewi Sant'') is a performing arts and conference venue in the heart of Cardiff, Wales. St David's Hall is the National Concert Hall and Conference Centre of Wales. It hosts the annual Welsh Proms and the biennia ...

, Cardiff, Theatre Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham and the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. They have performed with orchestras including the

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, that performs and produces primarily classic works. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable ...

and Concert Orchestra, the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Sym ...

, the

BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale symp ...

, the Philomusica of London, the

Wren Orchestra Wrens are a family of brown passerine birds in the predominantly New World family Troglodytidae. The family includes 88 species divided into 19 genera. Only the Eurasian wren occurs in the Old World, where, in Anglophone regions, it is commonly ...

and the

London Mozart Players London Mozart Players (LMP) are a British chamber orchestra founded in 1949. LMP are the longest-established chamber orchestra in the United Kingdom. Since 1989, the orchestra has been Resident Orchestra at Fairfield Halls, Croydon. History ...

. They were invited by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother to perform at the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Broadcasting

They have made radio broadcasts in Canada, Denmark, Germany, Israel and New Zealand, plus both Classic FM and

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The st ...

in the UK. Their television appearances include: the UK, Japan, USA and New Zealand.

Recording

The sisters first published CD recording, ''Fantasy'', was described by the Penguin Guide to Compact Discs as "delightful and generous, ...plenty of virtuosity and, ... especially enjoyable transcriptions; both the Sleeping Beauty Suite and the Polovtsian Dances are sparkling examples". The second recording, ''Reflections'' was the Classic FM Critic's Choice. It was described as catching "... the shimmering tone colours of Ravel's Introduction and Allegro to perfection. No less impressive was Fauré's Dolly Suite". Their third recording, ''La Danse'', was selected in HMV's Top 49 CDs.

Gramophone Magazine ''Gramophone'' is a magazine published monthly in London, devoted to classical music, particularly to reviews of recordings. It was founded in 1923 by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie who continued to edit the magazine until 1961. It was ...

described it as "a delightful record, ... scintillating in their two-piano and piano-duet format, ... totally winning without any preciosity or self-consciousness."

Teaching

They give masterclasses in both Europe and America where they are Visiting Professors. The schools include the

, London,

Royal Northern College of Music The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is a conservatoire located in Manchester, England. It is one of four conservatoires associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. In addition to being a centre of music educatio ...

, Manchester,

Stetson University Stetson University is a private university with four colleges and schools located across the I–4 corridor in Central Florida with the primary undergraduate campus in DeLand. The university was founded in 1883 and was later established in 1887 ...

, Florida, and Loyola University, New Orleans.

Commissions

Premieres and works written for them include: *The world premiere of Timothy Blinko's ''Gemini Concerto'' with the

English Sinfonia English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

was commissioned by ''SoundSense''. *The South Bank premiere of the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra by

Max Bruch Max Bruch (6 January 1838 – 2 October 1920) was a German Romantic composer, violinist, teacher, and conductor who wrote more than 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a prominent staple of the standard v ...

was performed at the Royal Festival Hall. *The world premiere of Terry Winter Owens' ''Intimations of Celestial Events'' for Trumpet (Antoinette) and Piano (Claire) was held in New York.

Discography

The twins have released three albums of piano music:

''Fantasy''

;Track listing: #

Rimsky-Korsakoff Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov . At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ. la, Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as ''Nicolas Rimsk ...

(arr. Rachmaninoff), '' Flight of the Bumble Bee'' #

Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of ...

, 18th Variation from ''

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini The ''Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini'', Op. 43, (russian: Рапсодия на тему Паганини, ''Rapsodiya na temu Paganini'') is a concertante work written by Sergei Rachmaninoff for piano and orchestra, closely resembling a piano ...

'' #

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most pop ...

(arr. Rachmaninoff), ''

Sleeping Beauty Suite ''The Sleeping Beauty'' ( rus, Спящая красавица, Spyashchaya krasavitsa ) is a ballet in a prologue and three acts, first performed in 1890. The music was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( Opus 66). The score was completed ...

'' # Michael Elliot, ''Berceuse pour deux'' #

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

, 3 movements from ''

Mother Goose Suite ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestati ...

'' # Alexander Borodin, Borodin (arr. Cann) '' Polovtsian Dances'' #

Terry Winter Owens Terry Winter Owens (194131 July 2007) was an American composer and music educator. Biography Terry Winter Owens was born in New York City, and began composing at age ten. She took music lessons as a child and won a scholarship to study with Lisa S ...

, Pianophoria No. 3 # Gershwin (arr. Grainger), Fantasy on ''

Porgy and Bess ''Porgy and Bess'' () is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play ''Porgy'', its ...

''Reflections''

;Track listing: #Rachmaninoff, Suite No. 2 Op. 17 #Ravel, Introduction and Allegro #

William Walton Sir William Turner Walton (29 March 19028 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include ''Façade'', the canta ...

, Popular Song from ''

Façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means 'frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

'' #

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers ...

, '' Dolly Suite'' Op. 56 #

Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-kn ...

, ''L'embarquement pour Cythère'' #

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

, Fantasia in F minor Op. 103

''La Danse''

;Track listing: # Saint-Saëns, ''

Danse Macabre The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ) (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification o ...

'' #

Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most infl ...

, '' Petite Suite'' #

(arr. Cann) Dances from ''

The Nutcracker Suite ''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchai ...

'' #

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

, '' Variations on the St. Anthony Choral'' #

Edward MacDowell Edward Alexander MacDowell (December 18, 1860January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the late Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites '' Woodland Sketches'', ''Sea Pieces'' and '' ...

, ''Hexentanz'' #Brahms, Waltzes from Op. 39 #

Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

, ''

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor, S.244/2, is the second in a set of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies by composer Franz Liszt, and is by far the most famous of the set. In both the original piano solo form and in the orchestrated version this ...

Awards

They have been awarded : *

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

'Critic's Choice', * Classic FM 'Critic's Choice', * HMV 'Best 49 CDs' *A rosette in ' The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music (formerly ''The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs'').

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cann, Claire and Antoinette 1963 births Living people British identical twins Classical piano duos English classical pianists Women classical pianists 20th-century classical pianists Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Twin musical duos English twins 20th-century English women musicians English women pianists 21st-century classical pianists 21st-century English women musicians Identical twin females 20th-century women pianists 21st-century women pianists