Jonathan Powell
Biography Jonathan Powell
Jonathan Powell
is a pianist and composer. After studies with Denis Matthews and Sulamita Aronovsky, he established an international career as a soloist, his programmes ranging from standard Classical and Romantic repertoire to contemporary and little-known 20th century works. He has performed widely in Europe, as well as in Russia and the US; he has also appeared on national radio of many countries and recorded about 20 CDs.
Over the last decade, concert work has taken him to New York, the Musica Nova Festival in Helsinki, the Festival Radio France et Montpellier, Festival de Chaillol (Hautes-Alpes France), the Raritäten der Klaviermusik am Schloss vor Husum, the Reggello Festival (Italy), Vredenburg Muziekcentrum in Utrecht, De Toonzaal in ‘S Hertogenbosch, Gigant in Apeldoorn, and concerts in the Conservatoire and Russian Academy of Music in Moscow, and the Sheremetevsky Palace (St Petersburg), in the Altes Rathaus, Vienna (at the invitation of the Joseph Marx Society) and in masterclass and concert tours of Denmark. In the UK, his concerts have taken him to venues ranging from the Royal Festival Hall to university departments and local town halls.
He has recently appeared in many concert halls in Eastern Europe: since October 2010 he has undertook tours in Slovakia, the Czech Republic (including a residency at the Janacek Academy in Brno), Ukraine, Russia and Lithuania, performing repertoire ranging from John Field and Chopin, to contemporary music.
Powell has worked with many of today’s most prominent composers such as Ambrosini, Finnissy and Staud. As well as giving UK premières of pieces by Sciarrino, Feldman and Salonen, he has commissioned many new works.
Powell is a self-taught composer — he has recorded several of his own works for BBC broadcasts and has received performances by the London Sinfonietta, the Arditti Quartet, Valdine Anderson, Sarah Leonard, Darragh Morgan and Nicolas Hodges among others. His articles on many aspects of Russian music appear in the New Grove Dictionary of Music; his articles have been published by International Piano and the Finnish musicological journal Musiikki-lehti. He recently contributed to a book on the pianist-composer Samuil Feinberg, and co-edited the publication Rimsky-Korsakov and his Heritage.
