Biography —

Exploration, insight and imagination are vital ingredients in Melvyn Tan’s blend of artistic attributes. He established his international reputation with pioneering performances on fortepiano and, acclaimed for the wit, tonal contrast and poetry of his playing, he continues to cast fresh light on a repertoire ranging from Bach, Scarlatti and Rameau to Liszt, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Messiaen and John Cage inspired by early encounters with teachers Nadia Boulanger, Vlado Perlemuter and Marcel Ciampi at the Yehudi Menuhin School.  He has also premiered a whole range of contemporary works by composers including Kevin Volans, Jonathan Dove, Judith Weir, Sir Peter Maxwell Davis and Julian Grant.

Melvyn’s work in recital, chamber music and as a concerto soloist has been heard at many of the world’s leading concert halls, from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Vienna Konzerthaus, AMUZ in Brussels, London’s Wigmore Hall and Royal Festival Hall, New York’s Lincoln Center, and at major festivals in Tokyo, Salzburg, San Francisco, La Roque d’Anthéron as well as Edinburgh, Bath, City of London and North Norfolk.

His concerto partners have included the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, English Chamber Orchestra, London Classical Players, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Salzburg’s Camerata and Mozarteum Orchestras, Bruckner Orchestra Linz, Melbourne Symphony, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Melvyn has also connected with audiences across China and Southeast Asia, introducing many to their first experience of fortepiano and attracting young people to attend recitals on both the early and the modern piano. Many have discovered his work through his exceptionally large discography, complete with ground-breaking recordings of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert for EMI Classics, and releases on the Archiv, Deux-Elles, Harmonia Mundi, NMC and Virgin Classics labels. His 2019 recording, ‘Miroirs’ (Onyx Classics) embraces three centuries of keyboard style and traces some of the inspirations for Ravel’s ground-breaking works for piano, hailed by The Times as a “fascinating disc”. On his CD of Beethoven, Czerny and Liszt – ‘Master and Pupil’ (Onyx Classics), The Sunday Times commented that “The progression is from marvelousness to absolute delectation. His playing is always exquisite, but much more than that.” The 2024 release of the last three Beethoven sonatas for Signum Records rounds off his discography of Beethoven concerti, sonatas and smaller works.

Recent appearances include performances with MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and Filharmonie Brno (with Dennis Russell Davies), Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchester Wiener Akademie, Deutsche Philharmonie Merck and the Singapore re:SOUND Collective. Recital and chamber music highlights include Wigmore Hall, AMUZ, Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival, an international symposium of 20^th century music at Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, a Beethoven Marathon in Brussels as well as recitals in Singapore, France, Italy, Spain and South Africa.

He continues his role in devising ‘Music and Word’, a subtle balance of literature and music in collaboration with a series of narrators including Dame Vanessa Redgrave, Dame Harriet Walter, Sir Derek Jacobi and Alex Lawther within the unique setting of the Hay Barn at Charleston Farmhouse in East Sussex, made famous by the Bloomsbury Group. He has recently expanded this vision, collaborating now with choreographer Russell Maliphant, Royal Ballet principal dancer Reece Clarke and designer Kim Jones.

In addition to his concert and recording activities, Melvyn Tan gives masterclasses and is a regular adjudicator. He is also keen and long-standing supporter of Buskaid, the outstanding South African music project in a Soweto township, listed by Gramophone Magazine as one of the world’s ten most inspiring orchestras.