Professor John Irving SFHEA
Key details:
- Role:
- Historical Performance: Principles & Research
Biography & Pure profile
Described as ‘One of the foremost exponents of the period piano in the UK’, John Irving is has performed internationally on a variety of early keyboards (notably fortepiano, harpsichord and clavichord), specializing in music of the later 18th century.
International Piano has described his Beethoven playing as ‘Excellent…played with historical awareness and humour.’ His most recent solo CDs of Haydn Piano Sonatas (on fortepiano) and Mozart Keyboard Works (on a historic 1763 Hass Clavichord) stand alongside other critically-acclaimed chamber music recordings he has made with Ensemble DeNOTE, including Beethoven and the art of Arrangement, which won a 5* review in Early Music Review, and Mozart Chamber Music vol.1 (4* in The Guardian). Performances at major UK and international festivals include Greenwich International Early Music Festival; Brighton Early Music Festival; North York Moors Chamber Music Festival; the Geelvinck Festival, Amsterdam; and the Valletta International Baroque Festival. Regular fortepiano masterclasses at home and abroad include Fondation Royaumont, Paris; Conservatorio Rossini, Pesaro; University of Krakow: McGill University; Conservatorio Svizzeria Italiano in Lugano; Royal Irish Academy of Music; and the Cini Foundation, Venice.
John was previously Professor of Performance Practice at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music, Professor of Music at Bristol University and subsequently Director of The Institute of Musical Research at London University and Vice President of the Royal Musical Association. An internationally-recognized Mozart scholar, he has published six books on Mozart, including a best-selling biography, The Treasures of Mozart (André Deutsch, 2010), along with major contributions to the internationally award-winning The Mozart Project (a digital book for iPad). In 2021 he was appointed Honorary President of University College London’s Chamber Concerts Society.