Mahan Esfahani

A master harpsichord player and a renowned afficionado of the works of J.S. Bach, Iranian-American composer Mahan Esfahani has dedicated his life to bringing alive the ancient instrument and establishing Baroque music in a contemporary context. Born in Tehran, Esfahni moved to Washington D.C. with his family as a young boy, and at the age of nine he first discovered an old picture of composer Johann Sebastian Bach. The school library provided him further inspiration with a cassette recording of Karl Richter and the Munich Bach Orchestra performing harpsichord concertos and a year later he saw his beloved instrument played for the first time when he convinced his father to take him to a recital held by British conductor Iona Brown. He went on to study musicology at Stanford University where he found a mentor in George Houle and continued his training under Peter Watchorn in Boston and in Italy under Lorenzo Ghelmi before landing in Britain in 2007, where he became artist in residence at New College, Oxford and made his debut at the BBC Proms in 2009. He went on to release albums 'Wurrtemberg Sonatas' featuring works by C.P.E. Bach and recorded 'Byrd, Bach, Legti' live at Wigmore Hall in London in 2014, moving to Prague to complete his studies with the legendary Zuzana Ruzickova. A collaboration with Danish recorder player Michala Petri on 'La Follia' saw him take on compositions by Italian violinist Arcangelo Corelli and he also signed to the Deutshe Grammophon label for his most acclaimed album 'Time Present and Time Past' in 2015, which was partly inspired by a T.S. Eliot quote and mixed Baroque works by Bach, Francesco Geminiani and Alessandro Scarlatti with the modern, minimalist style of Steve Reich and Henryk Goreck. Though his virtuosity was well-respected, some more traditional fans and critics have spoken against the modern approach and his spontaneous, ambitious, fully absorbed style; on occasions he has even been booed and jeered at concerts. He also publicly fell out with rival German harpsichordist Andreas Staier before returning in 2016 with his epic, melodic interpretation of J.S. Bach's landmark masterpiece 'Goldberg Variations'.

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