Jonathan Powell, pianist
© Jonathan Powell
Jonathan Powell has established himself as one of the most accomplished, daring and sensitive pianists of his generation. As comfortable performing Romantic sonatas as the most radical contemporary works, Powell has been credited with a virtuosic technique as well as profound insights into composers’ thoughts.
He studied the piano with Denis Matthews and Sulamita Aronovsky, and made his début at the age of 20 at the Purcell Room, under the auspices of the Park Lane Group’s Young Artist Series. He then graduated from Cambridge University with a double first; he later continued his studies there with a Ph.D. on Scriabin and Russian music. As part of his doctoral research, he travelled to Russia and, having amassed a large collection of music suppressed during the soviet era, he gave some of the first performances of this music in several decades. Over the 1990s, he attracted attention as performer of Romantic and contemporary repertoire, at the same time as establishing a reputation as a composer and writer on music.
In 1999, Powell directed and performed in a series of concerts at the Barbican’s St Petersburg festival; the next year he performed in Russia where he was acclaimed as a “great virtuoso” by the Moscow press. He has appeared as a pianist across the UK: in the Aldeburgh, Brighton and Huddersfield festivals, as well as in the Cutting Edge series and the South Bank Centre in London. He has also performed in mainland Europe, including in Utrecht (by invitation of Radio Netherlands), in Helsinki (with an appearance on YLE, Finnish national radio), in Marseille, France, and at the Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella (northern Italy).
Powell has been noted for his insights into the broadest range of repertoire, his virtuosic technique, and his production of a particularly wide range of colours from the piano. His repertoire ranges from Bach to the present day. Additionally, several notable British composers have written works especially for him and he has given UK premières of pieces by Bussotti, Cage, Feldman and Sciarrino.
Powell has recently focussed on works of late Romantic composer-pianists such as Scriabin and Busoni. He has also made a particular specialism of the Parsi composer Sorabji — he has performed more of this composer’s works than any other pianist. His recordings for Altarus, ASV and Largo have been critically acclaimed; his relationship with the Altarus label is producing an ongoing series of groundbreaking recordings. Forthcoming concerts include appearances in the UK, Finland, Germany, Italy and the US.
He has an active profile as a composer—he has recorded several of his own works for BBC broadcasts and has had works performed by the London Sinfonietta, the Arditti Quartet, Valdine Anderson, Jane Manning, Sarah Leonard, Nicolas Hodges, Thomas Adès and others. He was awarded a doctorate from the University of Cambridge for a dissertation concerning Scriabin and his influence on Russian music; he has published major articles on Russian composer-pianists, Scriabin, Feinberg, Stanchinsky, Čiurlionis, Futurism and Soviet music.
Further information can be found on the artist’s webpage at www.jonathanpowell.wordpress.com.