B i o g r a p h y
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, Spain, the UK, Ireland, the USA and China, where he performed at venues such as the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Cheltenham Town Hall, Warwick Arts Centre, Sheldonian Theatre Oxford, Wilton’s Music Hall London, Regent Hall London, Adrian Boult Hall Birmingham, Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal, Great Hall of the Erholungshaus der Bayer AG Leverkusen, the Guotai Arts Centre Chongqing, and at several universities across the USA. A performance with the soprano Valentina Pennino was broadcast on the TV station RheinMain TV.
Critically acclaimed solo appearances with the Camerata Europeana, Philharmonie Heidelberg, Helios Chamber Orchestra, amongst others, include piano concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms, under the batons of Radoslaw Szulc (1st concert master of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and leader of the BR Chamber Orchestra), Owen Leech, Jürgen Weisser, et al.
Jan has collaborated with chamber music partners including the concert master of the BBC Concert Orchestra, the solo cellist of the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, and players with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the BBC Singers, Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, The English Concert, Staatskapelle Weimar, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Des Moines Metro Opera, Camerata Ireland, and others.
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 lecturer and violinist Peter Sheppard-Skærved.
In October 2022, at the composer’s request, Jan performed in the 75th-birthday concert for Royal-Philharmonic-Society-Award and British-Composer-Award-winner, Howard Skempton. The concert also featured a 'Scèna' which Skempton wrote on commission for Jan and his wife, of which the duo gave the world première in 2012 (https://www.tfront.com/p-333720-brave-guy-of-warwick-for-mezzo-soprano-and-piano-2012.aspx). The piece was published by Oxford University Press and is available for purchase.
In August 2021, Jan was unanimously voted onto the committee of the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe; he gave his debut recital for the society at London’s Regent Hall in July 2022.
Jan was invited to perform in US composer Steven Sacco’s ‘Piano Night’ in New York/USA in 2025, a concert entirely focussed around his piano works. Sacco will write a piece specifically for him for that occasion.
As a student, Jan has participated in master-classes with Andrzej Jasiński, John O’Conor, Ivan 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 in 2001 (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 in 2000. His performance in the Brahms Prize at the Royal Academy of Music prompted adjudicator to comment as follows: “This was a performance that displayed an interesting, intelligent, thoughtful and sensitive artist who possesses a real understanding of Brahms.” (Ashley Wass, Dir. of Music, The Yehudi Menuhin School)
In March 2024, Jan appeared on national radio in The Times Radio Breakfast Show, commenting on an article by pianist Lang Lang in the newspaper The Times which dealt with parental involvement in their children’s musical education.
Online blogger Melanie Spanswick has conducted a large-scale interview series with Jan this year, which will be published as a four-part series over the months of April and May 2024. Her online blog is one of the most widely-read publications on matters concerning the piano and has received over 1.5 million views to date.
Jan’s presentation The Neuro-Scientific Approach to Expertise was included in the National Conference for Keyboard Pedagogy in Chicago in July 2023, selected from an international field of entires. https://pianoinspires.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/2023-NCKP-Program-Book-FINAL.pdf The précis (p.38) read as follows:
‘This presentation deals with the neuro-scientifically and psychologically relevant aspects pertaining to instrumental practice, to make students conscious of the processes involved in acquiring a highly specialised skill, and to empower them to examine their own approaches to practice. Thus, students will be able to harness their innate skills and improve those aspects which need honing and tweaking. Understanding principles of effective practice provides students with a roadmap to improve instrumental proficiency through repeatable, conscious practice strategies.’
In October 2022 Jan hosted a pre-concert talk at Warwick Arts Centre featuring conductor Sir Mark Elder before his performance with the Hallé Orchestra and pianist Pavel Kolesnikov, in a performance of Rachmaninoff’s 3rd Piano Concerto and Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony.
In May 2022 Jan gave a webinar for EPTA-UK, titled 'Just who plays in time anyway', exploring a performer’s relationship with musical timing. https://epta-uk.org/events/cpd-webinars/ (EPTA membership required to gain access)
In 2018 Jan visited China to give a lecture and demonstration lessons to a delegation of 200 piano teachers, focussing on how to incorporate musicianship into instrumental teaching right from the beginning.
Jan is an active committee member of the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe (BPSE). The aim of the society is to promote young pianists who are on the cusp of embarking on their careers by providing concert opportunities and facilitate lessons with eminent musicians, as well as running the annual Intercollegiate Beethoven Piano Competition for both senior and junior students. Furthermore, the society promotes concerts of notable established pianists across the year.
He has been appointed Co-Artistic Director of BPSE’s 2027 International Beethoven Festival-Competition, which will culminate with the performance of all major works by the composer involving a piano. The overarching aim of the multiyear, pan-European event will have community interaction and education at its heart through a dedicated social media channel of educational resources, as well as several international music academies which will bring students, teachers and guest artists together for collaboration.
Jan’s review of a selection of piano sonatas by Josef Haydn, newly published by Bärenreiter, appears on page 38/39 in issue No.128 of the EPTA Piano Journal. https://pubhtml5.com/ssbo/rilu/Piano_Journal_128_interactive/