Biography
"A tremendous display of pianistic virtuosity with a powerful interpretation." Evening Telegraph (UK).
Since his Mozart concerto debut in Australia aged twelve, pianist James Brawn has forged his own musical path of discovery, studying with great pianists who can trace their teachers' lineage back to Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Clara Schumann.
James was born in England in 1971, but has lived around the world in New Zealand, Australia and the USA. Starting piano lessons at the age of seven with Susan Hayday, James performed on New Zealand television and won his first awards in Auckland in 1979. His family moved to Melbourne the following year where his musical studies blossomed through the 1980s with Margaret Schofield(a pupil of Solomon), Ronald Farren-Price(a pupil of Arrau) and Rita Reichman(a pupil of Serkin and Horszowski), winning major prizes at eisteddfods and scholarships including the Hephzibah Menuhin award. He also reached the concerto final of the ABC Young Performers Awards in 1987, leading to concerts with the Adelaide and Melbourne symphony orchestras.
With a major overseas study grant from the Australia Arts Council, James was able to continue work with his mentor, Rita Reichman in Philadelphia, gaining a full scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, London, in 1988. There, he studied with Frank Wibaut and Christopher Elton, winning many recital awards including the Beethoven and 20th century prizes, and performing in master classes with great pianists including András Schiff, Tamás Vásáry, Stephen Kovacevich, Fou Ts’ong and Menahem Pressler. James also studied chamber music with members of the Amadeus and Chilingirian Quartets and attended the Britten-Pears and Lake District summer schools. At the age of 19, James won the Keyboard final of the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition, performing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.
Recitals as soloist and in chamber music partnerships followed around the UK at music societies and festivals, including performances at the Purcell Room, St. Martin-in-the-Fields and St. James' Piccadilly. James furthered his studies with the Armenian pianist, Nelly Akopian, and the Slovenian pianist, Marina Horak.
In 2001, James moved to Melbourne where he took up a position at Scotch College, in one of the finest music departments in Australia, teaching piano to advanced students and coaching chamber music. Since that time he has worked on many artistic projects, building repertoire and performing for music societies, universities and festivals in Australia, China and the UK. James has recorded for ABC Classic FM and 3MBS radio and is co-founder of the biennial Scotch College Melbourne Piano Festival. Recent programmes have been titled 'The Time Traveller', 'Russian Revolutionaries', 'The Bach Code', 'My Beethoven Odyssey', 'Paradise Lost', 'Favourite Encores', 'My Dozen a Day' and 'Appassionata'.
Now based in the Cotswolds(UK), James begins an epic undertaking to perform the complete Beethoven piano sonatas through 2011 - 2015. In 2012, recording starts at Potton Hall in Suffolk. This season, James performs solo recitals in London, Birmingham, Cheltenham, Chichester, Paris, Sicily, Rome, the Cotswolds, Manchester, Glasgow, Brunei, Hong Kong and Melbourne.
