Crossley, Paul Christopher Richard (1944- )

English pianist. He was artistic director of the London Sinfonietta 1988-94. A specialist in the works of such composers as Maurice Ravel, Olivier Messiaen, and Michael Tippett, he studied with Messiaen and the French pianist Yvonne Loriod (1924- ).

Born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, he studied at Oxford University and with Messiaen in Paris, France. Tippett's Third Piano Sonata (1973) was written for Crossley. In 1988 he presented a successful series of TV programmes on 20th-century classics and played in the first British stage performance of Leoš Janáček's Diary of One who Disappeared at the London Coliseum. His recording of works for piano and orchestra by Messiaen and Igor Stravinsky with the London Sinfonietta and Esa-Pekka Salonen won an Edison Award and the Grand Prix du Disque (France), both in 1991. He was appointed CBE in 1993.