
Jan’s career as a soloist, chamber musician and collaborative pianist has so far taken him to Hungary (where a piano recital of works by Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin was partly recorded for Hungarian television), Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Ireland and the USA.
Critically acclaimed appearances with the Camerata Europeana, Philharmonie Heidelberg, Helios Chamber Orchestra et al include piano concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms.
Schubert’s song cycle 'Winterreise' at the National Concert Hall in Dublin and at Lipscomb University in the USA with tenor Mark Duff were particular highlights. The latter performance prompted a standing ovation, and the chair of the piano faculty commented as follows:
“Loeffler’s performance of the Schubert ‘Winterreise’ cycle was one of the most moving musical experiences in the twenty years I’ve been presenting these concerts. It was well beyond technically accurate - it was musically sensitive and expressive. His collaboration with the singer was more than complementary; it became an essential and critical part of the message of the text.”
Jan has collaborated with chamber music partners including members of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the BBC Singers, as well as baritone Philip Smith who gave his Royal Opera debut in 2015, and with whom he has recently performed Schubert’s 'Die Schöne Müllerin', a collaboration which is planned to result in a recording of the cycle.
Jan has performed UK premières of works for violin and piano by both the contemporary American composer Michael Slayton and the Mendelssohn contemporary Ferdinand David at Wilton’s Music Hall in London with Royal Academy of Music Viotti Lecturer and violinist Peter Sheppard-Skærved, and, together with his wife, mezzo-soprano Ksynia Loeffler, he gave the world-première of a specially commissioned piece by Royal-Philharmonic-Society-Award and British-Composer-Award-winner Howard Skempton, called Brave Guy of Warwick.
Jan has participated in master-classes with Andrzej Jasiński, John O’Conor, Iván Klánsky, Christopher Elton, Pascal Devoyon, Renate Kretschmar-Fischer and the piano duos Hans-Peter & Volker Stenzl and Andreas Grau & Götz Schumacher.
A first prizewinner in the national 'Jugend Musiziert' competition (the German equivalent of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition) in the piano duet category, he was also a finalist in the same competition in the piano solo category.
Jan has been Visiting Lecturer of Piano at Birmingham Conservatoire since 2013 and has since had several prize winners in his class. Please see the 'Student Successes' section for more details.
Having been educated in the grand European piano tradition of the 19th and 20th century, Jan was keen to add science to his understanding of teaching in order to be able to cater for a large variety of student needs, hence him being the author of two dissertations dealing with teaching:
-
Expert Learning - The Neuro-Scientific Approach to Expertise (Hochschule für Musik Würzburg, 2005)
-
The Teaching of Excellence - Investigating the Role of the Teacher (Royal Academy of Music, 2009)