Munro, Ian
piano
Ian Munro has emerged over recent years as one of Australia’s most distinguished and awarded musicians, with a career that has taken him to thirty countries in Europe, Asia, North America and Australasia. His award in 2003 of Premier Grand Prix at the Queen Elisabeth International Competition for composers (Belgium) is a unique achievement for an Australian and follows on from multiple prizes in international piano competitions in Spain (Maria Canals), Italy (Busoni), Portugal (Vianna da Motta) and the UK, where his second prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1987 established his international profile.
Ian Munro completed his early training in Melbourne under the guidance of Marta Rostas, a pupil of Bela Bartok, and Roy Shepherd, a pupil of Alfred Cortot, and furthered his studies in Vienna, London and Italy with Noretta Conci, Guido Agosti and Michele Campanella. In the UK alone he has performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and broadcast widely for the BBC. Elsewhere, he has performed with orchestras in Poland, Italy, Portugal, Russia, the USA, China, New Zealand and all the major orchestras in Australia in over sixty piano concerti. In chamber music he has joined artists such as Ruggiero Ricci, Erich Gruenberg, Oleh Krysa, Krszysztof Smietana, Leslie Howard, Gerald English, Yvonne Kenny and the Medici and Belcea String Quartets, as well as the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. Ian joined the acclaimed Australia Ensemble in Sydney in 2000.
Ian has recorded CDs for ABC Classics,Hyperion , Cala, Naxos, Marco Polo, Tall Poppies and the new UK label Warehouse. Recent discs include two irreverent political satires: The Keating Tangos, a musical ‘tribute’ to the eponymous orator, and The Whitlam Rars, Concerto Symphonique on the ABC Classics label was recorded with David Porcelijn and the Tasmanian SO, featuring popular and rare concertante works for piano and orchestra. Discs of music by Tasmanian composer Katharine Parker and the piano concerto by Elena Kats-Chernin, commissioned for Ian Munro by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra have both received warm critical attention.
His solo repertoire embraces rare and unusual works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and displays a special commitment to and interest in new music. Premieres and commissions to his credit include works by Australian composers Peter Sculthorpe, Carl Vine, Elena Kats-Chernin, Roger Smalley, Andrew Ford and Gordon Kerry.
In 2003 Ian’s piano concerto Dreams won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Brussels and was subsequently played by the twelve finalists of the international piano competition. Broadcast across Europe both on radio and television, Dreams received its next performance in St Petersburg in Russia with the Hermitage State Orchestra as part of the Musical Olympus Festival. For further details of his composing career, see Ian’s composer biography During the last few concert seasons Ian has performed concerti by Ravel, Munro, Mozart, Kats-Chernin, Gershwin and Edwards, toured to the UK, Russia, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Uzbekistan and throughout Australia and New Zealand in recitals, chamber music and concerto performances. Ian’s commitment to the professional development of younger players has seen him give classes and participate on juries around the world for many years. After having headed the piano department at the Tasmanian Conservatorium for five years between 1995 and 1999, at present he is a member of staff at the University of NSW and at the Australian National Academy of Music.