Melvyn Tan - Piano & Fortepiano

Having established an international reputation for his performances on the fortepiano, Melvyn Tan made the decision to return publicly to the modern piano in 1995. The majority of his time is now devoted to the modern piano.

Born in Singapore and resident in the UK since 1978, Melvyn Tan began his studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School, where his teachers included Vlado Perlemuter, Nadia Boulanger and Marcel Ciampi. At London’s Royal College of Music he studied piano with Angus Morrison and harpsichord with Ruth Dyson before progressing to the fortepiano.

Melvyn Tan rapidly built an international reputation and in the 1980s and 90s his exclusive contract with EMI Classics produced a series of groundbreaking recordings, including the complete Beethoven Concertos conducted by Sir Roger Norrington.

He has given complete cycles of the Beethoven Sonatas and Debussy and Chopin Preludes in New York, Tokyo and London, and has performed at leading concert halls around the world, including: Wigmore Hall, London; Lincoln Centre (and also in New York at the Frick Collection); Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris; Vienna’s Musikverein; Salzburg’s Mozarteum; Die Glocke in Bremen and the Philharmonie in Cologne. Festival appearances include: Salzburg (summer festival and Mozartwoche); Mondsee; Cheltenham; City of London; Spitalfields; Bath; Oxford and Beijing. In addition to Roger Norrington and the London Classical Players, his concerto partners have included conductors Bruno Weil, Leonard Slatkin, Frans Brüggen, Nicholas McGeegan, Herbert Soudant, Libor Pesek and Jaap van Zweden.

Orchestras with which he has worked include the BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, Stuttgart Radio, Netherlands Symphony, Stavanger Symphony, Budapest Concert, Salzburg Camerata and Mozarteum Orchestras, Zurich Chamber, Netherlands Chamber, Los Angeles Symphony, New World Symphony, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Melbourne Symphony and Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Chamber music holds an important place in Melvyn’s repertoire, and his partners have included cellist Steven Isserlis, violinist Christian Altenberger, the Skampa Quartet and fellow pianist, Ronald Brautigam. He also partners singers such as Anne-Sofie von Otter, Lisa Saffer and Angelika Kirchschlager, and in 2006 will be embarking on a major recital project with Olaf Bär exploring the relationship between the First and Second Viennese Schools.

In addition to the complete Beethoven Sonatas and Schubert Impromptus, Melvyn Tan’s recordings for EMI Classics include two discs of Mozart concertos and Weber’s Konzertstück with the London Classical Players and Sir Roger Norrington. Further recordings of Mozart concertos have been released by Harmonia Mundi (Philharmonia Baroque and Nicholas McGeegan) and by Virgin Classics, this time with Tan’s own group, the New Mozart Ensemble.

For RCA Victor, he has recorded the complete Mendelssohn cello works with Steven Isserlis, and for Deutsche Grammophon, a Haydn/Mozart album and a disc of French and German Lieder with Anne-Sofie von Otter. His BBC CD recording of Nocturnes by Chopin, Debussy and Field was a BBC Music Magazine cover disc, and the BBC has also released a live Wigmore Hall recording of the Dvorák Piano Quintet with the Skampa Quartet. Melvyn’s most recent recording – a double CD set of Debussy’s Préludes – was released by Deux-Elles in May 2005.

Melvyn Tan was made a fellow of the Royal College of Music in November 2000.