Valerie Tryon's career as a concert pianist began while she was still a child. Before she was twelve she had broadcast for the BBC and was appearing regularly before the public on the concert platform. She was one of the youngest students ever to be admitted to the Royal Academy of Music where she received the highest award in piano playing and a bursary which took her to Paris to study. She has played in most of the major concert halls and appeared with many of the leading orchestras and conductors in England. She has appeared in solo recitals in England, Europe and North America. She is McMaster University's first Artist-in-Residence and is well known to Hamilton audiences where she has been playing for a number of years; she has also taught many McMaster students.

Her repertoire is enormous and ranges from Bach to contemporary composers; it includes more than sixty concertos and a vast amount of chamber music. She is well known for her sensitive interpretations of the romantics - Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninov in particular. Her musicianship combines warmth and deep feeling with an extraordinary accuracy, and a fine intellectual grasp of musical structure. A key event for Valerie in her career was sharing an appearance with John Ogdon at the Royal Festival Hall in London She was not given any choice but told to prepare Bartok's Third Concerto - it was a harrowing but exciting moment. She has been awarded several distinctions for her services to music including being an early recipient of the Harriet Cohen Award. The Liszt Memorial Plaque was bestowed on her by the Hungarian Minister of Culture in recognition of her lifelong promotion of Franz Liszt's music. Music allows Valerie Tryon to leave this world for a little while to go to another place... An enjoyable and uplifting concert can make reality just a little nicer.