Product Code Database
Mahan Esfahani () (born 1984 in Tehran) is an Iranian-American harpsichordist.
He studied musicology and history at Stanford University, where he took his first harpsichord lessons with Elaine Thornburgh and was mentored by George Houle. He continued his harpsichord studies in Boston with Peter Watchorn, before completing his studies under Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková.
His work for the harpsichord has resulted in recitals in major concert halls and events including the Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London; the Konzerthaus Berlin; the Edinburgh International Festival; Oji Hall, Tokyo; the Forbidden City Concert Hall, Beijing; Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart Festival, New York; the Al Bustan Festival, Beirut; and the Jerusalem Arts Festival.
He has had concerto appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, Symfonický orchestr Českého rozhlasu, Orquesta de Navarra, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and Britten Sinfonia. He is an artistic partner for 2016–2019 with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and has played as part of the Manchester Collective.
Performances include his Carnegie Hall debut in spring of 2018, recitals at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Thüringer Bachwochen with violinist Liza Ferschtman, concertos with the Kammerakademie Potsdam, and the continuation of a multi-year project of the complete keyboard works of J.S. Bach for Wigmore Hall, with whom he has enjoyed an association since he made his debut there.
Following three years as artist-in-residence at New College, Oxford, he continues his academic associations as an honorary member at Keble College, Oxford, where he serves as patron of the Keble Early Music Festival. Esfahani also became professor of harpsichord at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama in the spring of 2015. He can be frequently heard as a commentator on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 and as a host for such programmes as Record Review, Building a Library, and Sunday Feature. For the last programme he is currently at work on his third radio documentary following two programmes on such subjects as the history of African-American composers in the classical sphere.
Esfahani recorded Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Württemberg Sonatas for Hyperion Records, and the recording won a 2014 Gramophone Award in the Baroque Instrumental category. The same recording won him the BBC Music Magazine Award's 'Best Newcomer' award the following year. 2014 also saw Hyperion release his two-disc set of the complete harpsichord works of Jean-Philippe Rameau. In 2014, Esfahani signed a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon (DG), and his first DG recording, 'Time Present and Time Past', was released in 2015.
During a 2016 performance of Steve Reich's Piano Phase at the Kölner Philharmonie, some audience members booed, clapped, whistled and shouted 'speak German'. When different factions in the audience yelled each other down, Esfahani stopped the performance and Concerto Köln and instead played a concerto by C. P. E. Bach. Some members of the audience apologised for the incident after the concert.
On February 11, 2021, Mahan's collaborative album with Danish recorder player Michala Petri and German viola da gamba player Hille Perl, "Bach: 6 Flute Sonatas," won the Danish Music Award P2 Prize for Best Classical Album.
|
|
