John O'Conor

John O'Conor is deeply committed to the development of young pianists in Ireland and in other countries. As well as being Professor of Piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, he gives masterclasses and lectures in many of the places he performs as well as in many of the major music institutions including the Juilliard and Manhattan Schools in Ne... w York, Harvard, Yale, Temple, Rutgers, Indiana and Seattle Universities, the Ravinia Festival, the Adamant Music School in Vermont, the Hamamatsu Piano Academy in Japan, the National University of the Arts in Korea, the Australian National Academy and the Sydney Conservatorium in Australia, the Paris Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music in London. He has been a member of the Faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School since 2006 and is a regular performer at the Festival. He has been invited on the juries of most of the world's most prestigious International Piano Competitions including those in Leeds, Moscow (Tchaikovsky), Vienna (Beethoven), Warsaw (Chopin), Tel Aviv (Rubinstein), Hamamatsu, Beijing, Shanghai, Munich, Bolzano (Busoni), Cologne, Vevay (Clara Haskil), Cleveland, Salt Lake City (Gina Bachauer), Sydney, Pretoria, London, College Park (William Kapell), Valencia (Jose Iturbi), Hilton Head and Seoul. His students have won many international prizes. Since 1997 he has taken on the mantle of his revered professor Wilhelm Kempff and gives the annual Beethoven Interpretation Course in Kempff's own villa in Positano, Italy where Kempff gave the course from 1957. In August 2010, John O'Conor retired as Director of the Royal Irish Academy of Music after 16 years at the helm during which time he introduced Masters and Doctoral degrees in performance, oversaw a major refurbishment of the building itself, acquired many new instruments for the teaching rooms (including Steinway Grand Pianos) and persuaded the most prominent Irish musical personalities to join the teaching faculties of the Academy. Many students have had ...Read More