With a long list of critically acclaimed, award-winning performances and recordings to his name, Jonathan Plowright has been described as ’one of the finest living pianists’ by Gramophone magazine.
Gold Medallist at the Royal Academy of Music, Peabody Conservatory Concours winner and a Fulbright Scholar, after his studies Jonathan was a prize-winner in many competitions, including Gold Medal First Prize Winner of the Royal Overseas League Competition, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Awards and the European Piano Competition. Since then he has been in demand all over the world as recitalist, and appeared with leading conductors, orchestras and ensembles.
On the distinguished piano roster of Hyperion Record Label for many years, Jonathan has to date released a string of 14 successful CDs of diverse repertoire, winning such accolades as Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Gramophone, International Pianist and Pianist Editor’s Choice, BBC Music Magazine Choice, Diapason d’Or, FonoForum Tipp, and CD of the Week on Classic FM, ABC Classic FM, in the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times. His most recent CD of Piano Concertos by Ludomir Rozycki, was his 4th for the popular Romantic Piano Concerto series and made the top 10 classical charts in the UK and Germany, as well as being nominated for a prestigious International Classical Music Award 2017.
Jonathan’s recent recordings of the complete Brahms solo piano works for the Swedish label, BIS Records have been described as “a stunning achievement” and a “benchmark series”, with his interpretations being likened to those of the great Brahmsians such as Lupu, Katchen, Arrau and Pires. All have received tremendous critical acclaim, with many 5 Star Reviews in numerous publications, an ‘Outstanding’ Award from International Record Review, as well as Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine and ABC Limelight Magazine Editor’s Choice Awards. The third volume was chosen as one of the six best instrumental recordings for 2016 by Gramophone Magazine and was also the American Record Guide Critics’ Choice that year.
Over the past two decades Jonathan has also become a well-known and respected advocate of unjustly neglected Polish Romantic music, and his pioneering recordings and performances have confirmed him as a master of this repertoire. In 2017 Jonathan realised a long held ambition to record the Paderewski Piano Concerto – one of his all time favourites – when he was invited to join Lukasz Borowicz and the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus in Warsaw for Warner Classics. The resulting CD, which also included a world premiere recording of Stojowski’s Symphonic Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra, was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice and BBC Music Magazine ”˜Concerto’ Choice as well as receiving many 5 star reviews.
Elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 2013, Jonathan is also a keen educator, serving on piano competition juries, giving masterclasses and participating in summer schools. He is currently on the Keyboard Faculty of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
