Ian Fountain - piano
The youngest winner of the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Masters Competition in Tel Aviv in 1989
He began playing the piano at the age of five and he was a chorister at New College, Oxford. He continued his studies at Winchester College and at the Royal Northern College of Music, working with Robert Bottone and Sulamita Aronovsky.
Since that time Ian Fountain has performed extensively throughout Europe, the USA, the Middle East and the UK, with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Colin Davis, Philharmonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé, English Chamber Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also worked with the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra with Jiri Belohlavek, RTE Dublin with Gunther Herbig, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Utah Symphony and Singapore Symphony Orchestra. In Moscow he played Brahms Bb Piano Concerto to open the 1992/1993 season of the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire and in Poland he was invited to mark the 150th anniversary of Chopin’s death by playing both Chopin concertos in Krakow.
As a recitalist Ian Fountain has appeared in major centres such as New York, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Tel Aviv and Chicago whilst in London he has given several recitals at the Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall. He is a regular guest of international festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein, Berlin, Kuhmo, Prague, Davos, Bucharest and Hambach.
As a chamber music player Ian Fountain enjoys many longstanding collaborations with musicians such as David Geringas, Ulf Hoelscher, and the Mandelring and Emperor Quartets performing in concerts and festivals throughout Europe, Japan and Korea.
Future engagements include a complete Beethoven concerto cycle with ViVa East of England Orchestra, performances at the Prague Spring and Autumn Festival and the Chopin Festival in Marienbad as well as recital tours with cellist David Geringas.
Ian Fountain has made several critically acclaimed recordings: for EMI (recital of 20th century sonatas); CRD (Beethoven Diabelli Variations); CPO (Max Bruch Piano Quintet) and Hessischer Rundfunk (Schumann Novellettes).
Since 2001 Ian Fountain has been a piano professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
