IAN JONES

Ian first dramatically attracted public attention with his debut at the Royal Festival Hall in 1992 with a critically acclaimed performance of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto:

"The amazing maturity of interpretation and performance in this particularly emotional work was extraordinary"
- The Birmingham Post

This young British pianist had just returned from his prize-winning studies in Canada, California and Paris, and immediately launched into a series of concerto appearances with orchestras in Britain, recitals at the South Bank, St John's Smith Square and abroad.

Performances of Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto and Rachmaninoff's 'Variations on a Theme by Paganini' (both with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Hall), and Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto (with the Ensemble International in Paris and Cannes) confirmed the initial impression that Ian Jones was a young pianist whose playing was going to compare favourably with the very best of his generation:

"His opening flourish was wonderfully bold, and his subsequent contributions quickly testified to his physical power, feeling for clear, bright colour and a capacity for pearly finger work .... he rose to the heights of distinction"
- The Financial Times

In the Leeds International Piano Competition, Ian enhanced his growing reputation once again, leaving as a prize-winner and receiving offers to record chamber music and solo recitals both in Britain and France, for radio and compact disc, as well as a series of Mozart chamber concerts at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

"Ian Jones, the soloist, projected the music firmly and powerfully, knowing exactly where he was going and how to convey the maximum contrasts of light and shade"
- The Guardian

Ian has been awarded the Chappell Gold Medal by the Royal College of Music and the honour of the Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He was awarded a Scholarship by the French government, and won the Vlado Perlermuter Piano Scholarship and an award from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust. His distinguished teachers have included Phyllis Sellick, Gyorgy Sebok, Alan Planés and Maria Curcio, the great pupil of Schnabel, who described Ian as "an outstandingly gifted young artist, always warm and generous in performance, and with the promise of a brilliant career."