Art of Piano Public Masterclass: Joanna MacGregor

Described as ‘a brilliant light in the music world,’ Joanna MacGregor CBE is one of the world's most innovative musicians, appearing as a concert pianist, curator and conductor. As Dame Myra Hess Chair of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music and Professor of University of London, she is Head of an international piano department of young pianists from all over the world, many of whom have gone on to great success in the Van Cliburn, Leeds and Sydney International Piano Competitions. She also runs two annual Piano Festivals at the Royal Academy of Music, and curates a year-round recital series at the Wigmore Hall for Academy pianists. As a solo artist Joanna has performed in over eighty countries and appeared with many eminent conductors – Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Ilan Volkov, Sir Simon Rattle and Michael Tilson Thomas amongst them – and orchestras, including the London Symphony and Sydney Symphony orchestras, Chicago, Melbourne and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras, Berlin Symphony Orchestra and Salzburg Camerata. She has premiered many landmark compositions, and performs regularly at major venues throughout the world, including Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre and Barbican Centre in London, Sydney Opera House, Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. A regular broadcaster on TV and radio, she has made numerous appearances at the BBC Proms. Joanna has been the Artistic Director of Dartington Summer School and Bath International Music Festival, and curated the multi-arts Deloitte Ignite Festival at the Royal Opera House, as well as Aventures+, an orchestral series for Luxembourg Philharmonie. Joanna made her conducting debut in 2002 and has directed the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Liverpool Philharmonic, Britten Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata and the Hallé; she is the Music Director of the Brighton Philharmonic, presenting bold, innovative concerts in their centenary year.  

A 2020 cycle of the complete Beethoven sonatas at Canterbury Festival was followed in 2023 by an immersive series of Schubert recitals. The 2024-25 season sees Joanna performing in Europe, Scandinavia, China, US and Canada. She has released over forty solo recordings - many of them on her own award-winning record label SoundCircus - ranging from Chopin and Piazzolla to Bach and John Cage. Her collaborative and composition projects encompass jazz, film, visual art, contemporary dance and electronica, and includes music for forty-seven silent Sherlock Holmes films with the BFI. From 2015-2021 she chaired the Paul Hamlyn Composers Awards and has been a Booker Prize Judge. Joanna MacGregor has five honorary doctorates in music; her bestselling series of books for children, PianoWorld, is hailed as ‘a new series for the Millenium.’ 

Ido Akov (1993) completed his bachelor's degree in piano performance at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance under Ron Regev and Allan Sternfeld.

Akov has won awards at the "Piano Forever", "Haim Kalmi" and "Young Artist" competitions in Israel, and has subsequently performed with the Ashdod Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Kfar Saba Soloists, and more.

Akov is a America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship recipient for 4 consecutive years, as well as an alumni of the Jerusalem Music Center's David Goldman program for outstanding young musicians. Through this program he was invited to play in master classes with Murray Perahia, Andras Schiff, Richard Goode, Steven Kovacevich, and others.

Akov is especially active as a composer and performer of contemporary music: he is an alumni of the Meitar Ensemble’s Tedarim program, and plays regularly with the Israel Contemporary Players. As a composer, Akov’s works have been performed by the Musica Nova, Modalius, Meitar and Moran Singers ensembles, as well as the Great Gehenna Choir.

Akov released a debut album of original piano works: “The triangle becomes a line”, through Kame’a music in 2020.

Ido Akov was generously supported by the Sir Jack Lyons Scholarship for the Arts.

Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Oscar moved to the US in 2016 and received his Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, and his Masters degree from New England Conservatory of Music. His mentors include Profs. Matti Raekallio, Alexander Korsantia, Dang Thai Son, Malcolm Bilson. He has also worked with renowned artists and pedagogues including Stephen Hough, Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń, John Perry, Nikolai Demidenko, Ingrid Fliter.

His awards include the Special Prize for a Work of Chopin at the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition, Melbourne Recital Centre Bach Competition, Thailand International Piano Competition, and Hanoi International Piano Competition. He is a recipient of scholarships from the Australian Music Foundation and the Ian Potter Foundation. 

He has performed in Australia, Taiwan, USA, Canada, the UK, Poland, and across South-East Asia, notably at the Taichung National Theatre (Taiwan), Australia House (London, UK) and Melbourne Recital Centre. He has devoted time to performing and recording on historical pianos of the 19th century, presenting recitals at the 2023 Boston Early Music Festival, participating in the 2nd International Chopin Competition for Period Instruments, and recording an album of selected works on an original 1849 Broadwood piano. He has also recorded various works with the Mason & Hamlin piano company. 
 

Oscar Jiang was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.

Pianist Andrew Zhao made his concert debut at the age of 11 performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ken-David Masur. His solo appearances across the United States and Europe, in repertoire ranging from Bach to Saariaho, include performances at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles, Carnegie Hall in New York City, Harris Concert Hall at the Aspen Music Festival, and the Borromeo Music Festival in Switzerland. As a chamber musician, Andrew is a founding member of the London-based Trio Thalassa, which won the Royal Academy of Music’s Historical Women Composers Prize for their performance of Rebecca Clarke’s Piano Trio.

Andrew is currently a masters student at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studies with Rustem Hayroudinoff. He graduated with a B.A. in music and public policy analysis from Pomona College in southern California, where he studied with Genevieve Feiwen Lee. In his hometown of San Diego, California, Andrew studied with Inessa Litvin, and is grateful to Mrs. Litvin for establishing his musical foundations and love for piano playing. He has participated in masterclasses with Robert McDonald, Dang Thai Son, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

Born in Montreal, Canada, Sabrina started learning piano and went on an international student exchange program in the United States two years later receiving a certificate of achievement for “having demonstrated exceptional ability in the concepts of music”, and made her debut in Carnegie Hall when she was seven years old. She won first prizes at the Crescendo International Competition and in the Junior Category at the McGill Concerto Competition in 2010, and won 2nd prize at the Canadian Music Competition in 2012.

She spent her pre-college years at the Montreal Conservatoire de Musique and the Phil & Eli Taylor Performance Academy. Festivals she has attended include the Philadelphia International Music Festival, Orford Academy, Amalfi and Vivace music festivals, studying with Ronan O’Hara, Jerome Lowenthal, Boris Slutsky, Hee-sung Joo and many other professors. Other artists she has played for include Alice Sara Ott, Hugh Sung, David Louie and the violinist Ray Chen.

In 2023, she traveled to London on an exchange program at the Royal College of Music, studying with Dmitri Alexeev.

She is now pursuing her undergraduate studies with Olga Kern at the Manhattan School of Music.

Sabrina Chen was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.