John Byrne

FRCM, Grad Dip Moscow Conservatoire

Piano professor

John Byrne studied with Marjorie Clementi at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, winning a major scholarship and gaining the Graduate and Performer's Diplomas. Further study then followed with Ruth Harte at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he was awarded the Recital Diploma and won all the major scholarships and prizes open to him including the most prestigious award for pianists - the MacFarren Gold Medal. In 1981 he won the English-Speaking Union Fellowship which enabled him to study at Indiana University in the USA with Menahem Pressler of the Beaux Arts Trio. He also worked in Paris with Vlado Perlemuter and was awarded a British Council scholarship for two years postgraduate study with Vera Gornastaeva at the Tchaikovsky State Conservatoire in Moscow. Other awards include scholarships from the Governments of France, Italy, Germany, Hungary and the Chopin Fellowship in Poland. He has performed as soloist and recitalist in most parts of the United Kingdom and has also given concerts in the USA, Western Europe and Russia. In recent years teaching has become the main focus of his career and his pupils have had notable successes in competitions in the UK, USA, China, France, Belgium, Italy, Israel and Singapore. His younger pupils have done particularly well in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. Early in his career he taught in Moscow and at Indiana University in the USA. In this country he was on the faculty of the Purcell School from 1997-99 and was Professor of Piano at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama from 1993-99. He was appointed Professor at the Royal College of Music in1996 and has been Head of Keyboard on the specialist music scheme at Wells Cathedral School since 2000. WCS is an internationally renowned specialist music school attracting exceptional young talents from around the world.

In addition to his work at the RCM and WCS he also sits on competition juries and gives masterclasses - most recently in Shanghai, Dublin, Hong Kong and Singapore. He was a regular adjudicator for the BBC Young Musician Competition from 1998 to 2006 and has served as external examiner to all the major British conservatoires. He lectured on the Art of Teaching at both the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the Royal College of Music in London and has also served as a mentor on the ABRSM's professional development course for piano teachers in the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in 2022 for outstanding services to music and received this award from HRH the Prince of Wales, now King Charles III.

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Faculties / departments: Keyboard