Jonathan Plowright (born 1959) is an English

classical pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

Life and career

Plowright was born in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, England. He was educated at

Stonyhurst College Stonyhurst College or Stonyhurst is a co-educational Catholic Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing education for boarding school, boarding and day school, day pupils, adhering to the Society of Jesus, Jesuit tradition. It is ...

, in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. He was a gold medallist at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

, London, where his professor was

Alexander Kelly Alexander Kelly (April 7, 1840 – June 19, 1907) was an African-American coal miner and native of Pennsylvania who fought with the Union Army as a member of the 6th United States Colored Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. He wa ...

. He was also a recipient of a

Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

to study at the

Peabody Conservatory The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a private music and dance conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1857, it became affiliated with Johns Hopkins in 1977. History Philanthropist and ...

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

with Julio Esteban. Plowright won the

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore SO has its principal residence at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where it performs more than 130 concerts a year. In 2005, ...

Award in 1984 and the European Piano Competition in 1989. His USA debut was at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

in 1984. His UK debut followed in 1985, at

Wigmore Hall The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street, in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall; it is considered to have particularly good building acoustics, acoustics. It specialis ...

. Plowright has performed worldwide as recitalist, appeared with leading orchestras and ensembles, made many commercial recordings and appeared on radio and TV broadcasts. He champions neglected music from Polish Romantic composers, including

Zygmunt Stojowski Zygmunt Denis Antoni Jordan de Stojowski (May 4, 1870November 5, 1946) was a Polish pianist and composer. Life He was born on May 4, 1870, near the city of Kielce. Stojowski began his musical training with his mother, and with Polish compos ...

Ignacy Jan Paderewski Ignacy Jan Paderewski (;

r 1859 R, or r, is the eighteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ar'' (pronounced ), plural ''ars''. The lette ...

– 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist, composer and statesman who was a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the nation's Prime Minister of Poland, prime minister and foreign minister durin ...

Juliusz Zarębski Juliusz Zarębski (3 March 185415 September 1885) was a Polish composer and pianist active in the Russian Empire. Some of his manuscripts have been found in the National Library of Poland (BN). Life Juliusz Zarębski was born on March 3, 1854, i ...

, Władysław Żeleński,

Ludomir Różycki Ludomir Różycki (; 18 September 1883 Warsaw – 1 January 1953 Katowice) was a Polish composer, conductor and pedagogue. He was, with Mieczysław Karłowicz, Karol Szymanowski and Grzegorz Fitelberg, a member of the group of composers know ...

Ignaz Friedman Ignaz Friedman (born Salomon Izaak Freudmann; ; ; February 13, 1882January 26, 1948) was a Polish pianist and composer. Critics (e.g. Harold Schonberg) and colleagues (e.g. Sergei Rachmaninoff) alike placed him among the supreme piano virtuosi ...

and

Henryk Melcer-Szczawiński Henryk Melcer-Szczawiński (25 July 1869 – 18 April 1928) was a Polish composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher. He was the Director of the Warsaw Conservatorium from 1922 until 1928, when he reportedly died while giving a lesson. His stud ...

, which he has recorded for

Hyperion Records Hyperion Records is a British classical music record label. It was independent until February 2023, when it was acquired by the Universal Music Group. Under Universal, Hyperion is one of the three main classical record labels, alongside Decca a ...

and

Warner Classics Warner Classics is the classical music arm of Warner Music Group. The label began issuing new recordings under the Warner Classics banner in 1991. The company also includes the Erato Records and Teldec Records labels. Based in France, Warner Cla ...

. He gave the world premiere performance of

Constant Lambert Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founding music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Dame Ninette de Valois and Sir Frederick Ashton) he was a major figu ...

's Piano Concerto, and made world premiere recordings of the transcriptions of

JS Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orc ...

Walter Morse Rummel Walter Morse Rummel (July 19, 1887May 2, 1953) was a prominent pianist, especially associated with Claude Debussy's works, as well as a composer and music editor. He was of German- English descent and active mainly in France. Rummel was born in Be ...

, the 'Bach Book for Harriet', the collaborative suite ''

Homage to Paderewski ''Homage to Paderewski'' is an album of piano pieces by 17 composers, published in 1942 in honour of the Polish pianist, composer and statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Background ''Homage to Paderewski'' was commissioned by the music publisher Bo ...

'' and the "Symphonic Rhapsody" by Stojowski. Between 2012 and 2017 Plowright recorded the complete solo piano works of

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period (music), Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, oft ...

for

BIS Records BIS Records is a record label founded in 1973 by Robert von Bahr. It is located in Åkersberga, Sweden. BIS focuses on classical music, both contemporary and early, especially works that are not already well represented by existing recording ...

. He taught part-time at the

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (), formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama () is a conservatoire of dance, drama, music, production, and film in Glasgow, Scotland. It is a member of the Federation of Drama Schools. Founde ...

from 2007 until 2020. He offers masterclasses, consultation lessons and prize adjudications.

References

External links

Jonathan Plowright's website

Hyperion Records artist page

BIS Records artist page
1959 births Living people English male classical pianists Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music People educated at Stonyhurst College Musicians from Yorkshire 21st-century English classical pianists 21st-century English male musicians {{UK-classical-pianist-stub