JAMES KIRBY

After studying at the Royal Academy of Music James won a scholarship to the Moscow Conservatory during which time he performed all over the former Soviet Union. In 1990 he was a semi-finalist in the International Tchaikovsky Competition and in 1992 he won a National Federation of Music Societies Award and First Prize in the International Citta di Marsala Piano Competition in Sicily. He has given recitals throughout the United Kingdom and in many European countries and performed concertos with the English and Scottish Chamber Orchestras. In 1997 he opened the season at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory playing Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. He has been a member of the Barbican Piano Trio since 1991 and they have played in many prestigious concert series and festivals in the United Kingdom, throughout Europe and the USA, Russia and Uzbekistan. They have performed over sixty works for Piano Trio.

Currently he is a visiting professor at Royal Holloway, University of London and an Honorary Professor at the Rachmaninov Institute, Tambov, Russia, where he has recently played both Brahms Piano Concertos.

His discography includes recordings of piano trios by Lalo, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Taneyev and Schnittke with the Barbican Piano Trio and a recording of romantic pieces for violin and piano with Lydia Mordkovitch. A CD of solo piano and chamber music by the English composer Margaret Hubicki was released by Chandos in June 2005.

He enjoys coaching chamber music and has worked at Pro Corda and the Yehudi Menuhin School as well as the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust, the aim of which is to introduce young people to chamber music. He has given many piano masterclasses in the UK and abroad, notably in the Former Soviet Union, where he has worked at many of the most prestigious conservatoires. He has just been invited to become Visiting Keyboard Consultant at Oundle School, Northamptonshire and is an experienced adjudicator

This season includes concerts in Romania, Russia, Kazakhstan, the Czech Republic and France as well as many concerts throughout the UK including performances at the Wigmore Hall and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

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