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Rex Lawson was born on April 3, 1948, the son of two talented amateur musicians who met through playing piano duos. He was educated at Dulwich College and Nottingham University, where he studied Music and French. He began his career in music administration, first managing an small orchestra in middle England, and then as a musical executive for the Arts Council of Great Britain. However, a fascination with player-pianos led to the idea of his orchestra performing the Grieg Piano Concerto with Percy Grainger, who at the time (1972) had been dead for just over ten years. As a result of the ensuing concert he was asked to organize and present other concerts of posthumous pianists, and gradually Rachmaninoff, Busoni, Stravinsky, Hofmann, Gershwin and others returned to the concert platform, while Mr. Lawson found his administrative career disappearing in favor of a full-time commitment to the player-piano. Rex Lawson is kept very busy by his performances as well as his activities in creating and publishing music rolls for player-pianos, under his own Perforetur label. He has performed in the world premiere of Stravinsky's Les Noces in its 1919 version (which includes pianola, harmonium and cimbalom) with Pierre Boulez in Paris, the revival of George Antheil's Ballet Mécanique at Carnegie Hall, and the resuscitation of Percy Grainger to appear as soloist with the BBC Symphony. Mr. Lawson is the founder and director of the Pianola Institute, and has made three CD recordings of pianola music by Stravinsky and Antheil, available on the MusicMasters label. You can read Mitchell Clark's interview with Rex Lawson here. Music excerpt:
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