Paul Crossley

Paul Crossley (born May 17, 1944) is a British pianist.

Born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, his piano teacher was Fanny Waterman in Leeds. While a student at Mansfield College, Oxford, he was discovered by Olivier Messiaen and his wife Yvonne Loriod, who heard him play and immediately invited him to come to Paris to study with them. In 1968 he was second prize winner (joint prize winner with Japanese pianist Izumi Tateno) at the Messiaen Competition in Royan, France. Crossley is particularly associated with the music of Messiaen and British composers such as Michael Tippett, Nicholas Maw and George Benjamin. Tippett wrote his third and fourth Piano sonatas specifically with Crossley in mind. His extensive discography includes the piano works of Tippett, Fauré, Debussy and Ravel and the Fauré Violin sonatas with Arthur Grumiaux.