Past tutors:

Bernard Roberts (Founder Tutor)

Bernard Roberts has long been acknowledged as one of Britain's leading pianists.

His repertoire ranges from the early classics to the great works of the 20th century and his profound Beethoven interpretations have received particular acclaim.

The Classic FM hit parade recently featured his highly praised recordings of the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas which are available on compact disc on the Nimbus label.
He has performed at all the major British festivals and has been associated with the Dartington International Summer School for many years. His international career takes him throughout Europe, America and the Far East and he has given masterclasses at many leading festivals including the Van Cliburn Piano Institute in Fort Worth Texas. Teaching and performing commitments takes him regularly to Denmark and Germany.
In addition to his recital work Bernard Roberts often appears as concerto soloist with leading orchestras here and abroad. He is by now well known to Radio 3 listeners and he has been the subject of a 40-minute television documentary made for BBC2 by the director Mischa Scorer. Time is set aside each year for chamber music and he particularly enjoys performing the piano trio repertoire with his sons Andrew and Nicholas.

Website: freespace.virgin.net/caroline.ireland/intro.html

Philip Fowke

Philip Fowke is one of Britain’s most distinguished pianists. His appearances with leading orchestras in the UK, together with his many broadcasts and recordings have earned respect and admiration internationally. His outstanding musicianship is acknowledged by the many orchestras and conductors with whom he has worked including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Tadaaki Otaka, Sir Simon Rattle, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Yuri Temirkanov and Klaus Tennstedt.

The highlight of recent seasons have included a performance of the Warsaw Concerto at the Royal Albert Hall, London, as part of the BBC Promenade Concert Season broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and BBC 2 Television. This was his 12th Prom appearance. He also premiered Richard Bissill’s Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra with the London Philharmonic conducted by Ramon Gamba at the Royal Festival Hall. The same season also included an appearance with the City of Birmingham Orchestra at Symphony Hall conducted by Carl Davis. In addition he has performed Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concert no.2 at the Royal Festival Hall, London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Litolff Scherzo with the Ulster Symphony Orchestra in Belfast. And the Grieg Piano Concerto with the London Philharmonic at the Barbican, London

Philip Fowke, Senior Fellow of Keyboard, Trinity College of Music, gives regular masterclasses and has been invited to adjudicate on panels for international competitions. In 2007 he will be a tutor at the International Hereford Summer School as well as at Chethams Summer School He is a member of the London Piano Quartet together with Nona Liddell, violin, Elizabeth Turnbull, viola, and David Kenedy, cello, all professors at Trinity College of Music. They have recorded music by Cyril Scott and by Alan Bush both receiving excellent reviews.

Agents Website: www.patrickgarvey.com

Murray McLachlan

“Murray McLachlan is a pianist with a virtuoso technique and a sure sense of line. His timing and phrasing are impeccable, and his tone-full but unforced in the powerful passages, gentle and restrained in the more lyrical- is a perpetual delight” (BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE)

As a concert artist Murray McLachlan has received outstanding critical acclaim for intelligent and sensitive interpretations and superb technical ability. His prolific discography has received long-standing international recognition and includes over thirty commercial recordings, including the complete sonatas of Beethoven and Prokofiev and many rarities.

McLachlan’s repertoire includes over 40 concertos and he has appeared as soloist with most of the leading UK orchestras. His recognition has been far-reaching, bringing many invitations to perform abroad. In recent seasons his engagements have included performances in the USA, Scandinavia, South Africa, Poland , Byelorussia and Norway. In 1997 he was awarded a knighthood by the Order of St John of Jerusalem in recognition of his services to music in Malta. In 2003 he performed the complete cycle of 32 Beethoven Sonatas to critical acclaim in Manchester, and in 2004 his Wigmore Hall Erik Chisholm Centenary Recital and subsequent national tour attracted superlatives in the national press. His intense schedule continued this year with a ‘Shostakovich Centenary Recital tour’, sponsored by the UK Shostakovich Society and including 15 concerts all over the UK. This included a return to the Wigmore Hall in September.

Murray McLachlan has given first performances of works by many composers, including Martin Butler, Ronald Stevenson, Charles Camilleri, Michael Parkin and even Beethoven! Recordings of contemporary music have won numerous accolades, including full star ratings, as well as ‘rosette’ and ‘key recording’ status in the latest Penguin Guide to CDs, and ‘Disc of the month’ and ‘Record of the month’ in ‘Music on the web’ and ‘The Herald’.. He is Head of keyboard at Chetham’s school of Music and tutor at the Royal Northern College of Musc in Manchester, as well as Artistic Director of the Chetham’s International Summer school and festival for Pianists, an event which attracts outstanding musicians annually from all over the world.

Website: www.murraymclachlan.com

John Barstow

John Barstow studied piano and composition at the Royal College of Music with Cyril Smith and Bernard Stevens, winning all the major awards for solo and concerto playing. In 1961, his winning of the first NFMS Award, along with his Wigmore Hall debut, launched an international career. The Times reported the "debut of a fine British pianist - cause for patriotic cheers! His Promenade debut was made playing Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto. He plays a notably wide-ranging repertoire, from Byrd to Boulez, and his career has included several first performances. He has broadcast widely, and travels extensively giving masterclasses and serving on international piano juries. He has been a Professor in the RCM for over 40 years, and was elected a Fellow of the College in its centenary year. Included in a long list of distinguished former students is Barry Douglas, outright winner of the 1986 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. John Barstow was appointed MBE in the 2006 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to music education.

Website: www.rcm.ac.uk

Richard Mc Mahon

Known internationally for over three decades as a teacher and concert pianist, Richard McMahon now heads the keyboard department of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

As a boy growing up in the North of England, his first studies were with Ella Pounder, herself a student of the acclaimed pianist Solomon. Unusually, he had gained the LRAM and ARCM Performing Diplomas whilst still at school before continuing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Gordon Green. He was awarded the prestigious Recital Diploma in 1970 having previously received a BMus degree from the University of London in 1968. He also received various scholarships that funded further study, now in Paris, with the distinguished French pianist Vlado Perlemuter.

Perlemuter had studied with Ravel and Richard used this opportunity to make a special study of this composer`s repertoire as well as music by the other French masters as well as the works of Chopin. His solo career also began at this time and was marked by succesful London debuts followed by concerts throughout the UK. His many solo recordings for the BBC ranged through a wide repertoire and have included rarities such as the bagatelles of Daniel Jones, the Bridge Sonata and the first Tippett Sonata as well as the three Sonatas of Hindemith paired with the last three Sonatas of Haydn. He also made the first broadcast in Britain of the Concerto for piano and orchestra by Michael Torke Bronze.

Whilst at the Academy, he met Anne Shasby and forming a piano duo as students, they found immediate success after Wigmore and South Bank recitals featuring Stravinsky`s formidable arrangement of `Le Sacre du Printemps` for 4 hands. Concerts throughout the UK and innumerable broadcasts followed and were to continue for over a decade, including television appearances, Promenade concerts , appearances at all the major London venues working as a duo and with celebrated conductors and orchestras throughout the UK and overseas. In this time they performed and recorded almost the entire repertoire for two pianists.

The `70`s also marked the beginning of Richard`s long association as a teacher with Cardiff and Wales and he has made his home in Cardiff since 1975. He was for many years on the staff of University College before taking up his present position at the RWCMD in 1996. His teaching life has now also taken on an international dimension involving him in adjudicating and master classes at home and overseas as well as teaching and administrating hopefully one of the more enterprising departments in British conservatoires.

Since the `80`s he has also been known as a performer in duo with Martin Jones. Their two piano CD`s of the works of Percy Grainger and the complete Rachmanoinoff were acclaimed by the critics as was Richard`s solo recording of the complete piano works of Chabrier. He also regularly partners James Clark who is the Concertmaster of the Philharmonia as well as many of the distinguished instrumentalists who regularly visit the RWCMD.

He visits Singapore twice a year where he moderates the BMus Degree course at the NanYang Academy of Fine Arts and most recently he has visited and taught in the Conservatoire at Shenyang, Northern China and the Conservatorium in Newcastle, New South Wales in Australia . He is also the musical advisor and chair of the jury for the Newport International Piano Competition.

Website: www.rwcmd.ac.uk/keyboard

Vanessa Latarche

After studying at the Royal College of Music, London, and in Paris and the USA, Vanessa was a prizewinner in several international piano competitions. She has worked with many European orchestras, has broadcast numerous recitals for BBC Radio 3, and taken part in festivals as both soloist and chamber musician; she has partnered leading soloists such as Michael Collins.

Before becoming Head of Keyboard at the Royal College of Music, she was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London (1992–2005). She is a moderator, trainer and diploma examiner for the Associated Board, for which she travels extensively, and has adjudicated for the BBC Young Musician and other international competitions.

Website: www.rcm.ac.uk

Martin Jones - pianist

Martin Jones has been one of Britain’s most highly regarded solo pianists since first coming to international attention in 1968 when he received the Dame Myra Hess Award. The same year he made his London debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and his New York debut at Carnegie Hall, and ever since has been in demand for recitals and concerto performances on both sides of the Atlantic.

He is a prolific recording artist and his many discs for Nimbus Records include the complete solo piano works of Mendelssohn, Brahms, Debussy, Grainger, Szymanowski (voted Best Instrumental Recording of 1996 by the Spanish magazine ‘CD Compact’) Stravinsky, Korngold and the sonatas of Alun Hoddinott. He has recently recorded several Spanish piano masters and Volume 2 of this series received the 2000 Classical Indie Award from the Association for Independent Music in the USA. The soundtrack of the film ‘Howards End’ features Martin Jones performing Grainger’s Bridal Lullaby and Mock Morris. He has also recorded Grainger’s Tribute to Foster conducted by John Eliot Gardiner for Philips, Richard Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto for ASV, a recital CD with horn player, David Pyatt, for Erato Disques, and Reger’s Clarinet Sonatas with Anthony Pike. The first in a series of CDs featuring Richard Rodney Bennett’s piano music has recently been released on the Metronome label. Nimbus has just released Gershwin transcriptions by Earl Wild, and he is currently recording major piano works by Hans Gal.

Martin Jones has performed as concerto soloist with many of the leading British orchestras, as well as in the USA and Russia, and toured Canada as soloist with the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra. Performances include Shostakovich’s Concerto No 1 in Central and South America with the London Festival Orchestra, a regional tour playing Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Hallé Orchestra, the Britten Piano Concerto in St Petersburg, the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Scharwenka’s Piano Concerto No 1 in the USA, and Brahms Concerto No 1 with the Oman Symphony Orchestra. This season he has performance Mozart K491 with the London Festival Orchestra, and Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

His performance repertoire, as well as encompassing most of the standard works for piano, also includes unusual concertos such as the Busoni Concerto, which he performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Norman Del Mar. He has also championed the music of British composers and has performed concertos by Britten, Benjamin, Mathias, McCabe and Lambert. He gave the first performance of the revised version of Alun Hoddinott’s Third Concerto at the 1974 BBC Promenade Concerts, and recorded Hoddinott’s Second Concerto with Andrew Davis and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for Decca.

Martin Jones has given recitals throughout Great Britain, and as well as regular broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, he has given recitals for Brussels Radio, RTE in Dublin, DeutschlandRadio in Berlin and ABC in Australia. In the USA he has served as jury member on a number of international piano competitions, and performed in New York, Washington, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and California. In Los Angeles he gave a recital as part of the 1994 UK/LA Celebration of British Arts, which was broadcast live on KUSC Radio. He gave the world premiere of Ravelled Threads by American composer, Wendy Carlos in New York. In 1996 he became the first major British artist to give a solo recital in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Recent highlights include a recital at the Adelaide Festival, a programme of Percy Grainger at the Eifeler Musiktage in Germany, and the complete Iberia of Albéniz at London’s South Bank Centre.

Ronan O’Hora - Pianist

Born in Manchester in 1964, Ronan O’Hora studied with Professor Ryszard Bakst at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he won several awards, including the Dayas Gold Medal and the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. In 1985 he won the Stefania Niekrasz Prize, awarded every five years to an outstanding exponent of Chopin.

Ronan O’Hora has performed extensively throughout the world, playing with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Indianapolis Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Hungarica, Brno Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony, Florida Philharmonic and Queensland Philharmonic. He has performed in every major country in Europe as well as in the USA, Canada, Australasia and South Africa. He has appeared at many of the most prestigious music festivals, including Salzburg, Gstaad, Ravinia, Montpelier, Bath, Harrogate and Brno.

Television and radio performances throughout the world include a televised recital at the Chopin Society in Warsaw, a televised performance of Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto with the Netherlands Radio Symphony, two performances of Mozart chamber music for BBC TV, as well as over one hundred concerts on BBC Radio 3.

Ronan O’Hora has made many highly acclaimed recordings over recent years for EMI, Hyperion, Virgin Classics, Tring International, Dinemic and Fone . These include concertos by Mozart, Grieg and Tchaikowsky, and solo repertoire by Schubert Brahms, Debussy, Schumann, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Satie, as well as chamber music by Faure, Britten, Debussy, Dvorak and Mozart, amounting to a discography of over thirty CDs.

In recent seasons Ronan O’Hora has performed at the Salzburg Festival, the Kennedy Centre in Washington, and Sydney Opera House, in addition to tours of USA, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.

Future plans include further CD recordings, and concerts in Europe and USA, in addition to numerous concerto and recital performances throughout the UK.

Ronan O’Hora was appointed Head of Keyboard Studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in September 1999.

 

Né à Manchester en 1964, Ronan O’Hora a fait ses études avec le professeur Ryszard Bakst au Royal Northern College of Music, où il a gagné plusieurs prix, y compris la Dayas Médaille d’Or et la médaille d’argent de la Worshipful Company of Musicians. En 1985 il a gagné le prix Stefania Niekrasz, conféré tous les cinq ans à un interprète exceptionnel de la musique de Chopin.

Ronan O’Hora a joué partout dans le monde avec des orchestres célèbres comme le London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Indianapolis Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Hungarica, Brno Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony, Florida Philharmonic et Queensland Philharmonic. Il a joué dans la plupart des pays de l’Europe, aux Etats-Unis, au Canada, en Australasie et en Afrique du Sud, et il a participé à plusieurs festivals de musique prestigieux, y compris ceux de Salzburg, Gstaad, Ravinia, Montpellier, Bath, Harrogate et Brno.

Parmi ses émissions à la télévision et à la radio il a donné un récital télévisé pour la Société Chopin à Varsovie, il a interpreté le quatrième concerto pour piano de Beethoven à la télévision aux Pays-Bas, il a joué de la musique de chambre de Mozart à la BBC Television et il a donné plus de cent concerts à la BBC Radio Three.

Ronan O’Hora a reçu des applaudissements pour ses enregistrements chez EMI, Hyperion, Virgin Classics, Tring International, Dinemic et Fone: des concertos de Mozart, Grieg et Tchaikovski, des oeuvres pour piano solo de Schubert, Brahms, Debussy, Schumann, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Mendelssohn et Satie, ainsi que la musique de chambre de Fauré, Britten, Debussy, Dvorak et Mozart. Sa discographie comprend plus de trente CDs.

Pendant ces dernières années Ronan O’Hora a joué au festival de Salzburg, au Kennedy Centre à Washington et à l’Opéra de Sydney, et il a fait des tournées aux Etats-Unis, en Italie, à la Suisse, en Allemagne, en Australie et à la Nouvelle-Zélande. Ses projets d’avenir comprennent plusieurs enregistrements, des concerts en Europe et aux Etats-Unis et un grand nombre de récitals et de concertos partout dans le Royaume-Uni.

Depuis 1999 Ronan O’Hora est directeur des études de piano à la Guildhall School of Music à Londres.

 

 

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