Superstar teachers at Oxford

Next on our chronological round-up, in order of founding, is the Oxford Piano Festival. This event was established in 1999 by the remarkable pianist, conductor, entrepreneur, and all-round good-guy Marios Papadopoulos, who also founded the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. It is aimed at college-level students and young professionals at the beginning of their career, and centres on a series of masterclasses (the teachers and students are encouraged to involve audience members as much as possible) and evening concerts. Papadopoulos recounts the founding of the festival in his entertaining autobiography Beyond Dreams and Aspirations, and tells how, once he had decided to get the festival going, he knocked on doors until he had support and funding. ‘I was clear from the start about what I wanted to achieve: a finishing school for some of the most talented young pianists anywhere in the world… talent that we could nurture year on year.’ The roll-call of pianists who have taught and performed at the festival includes Vladimir Ashkenazy, Gary Graffman, Marc-André Hamelin and András Schiff, and dozens of other A-list superstars. Former attendees include Alim Beisembayev (Leeds winner 2021), Mark Viner and the blazing young firecracker Alexander Ullman – it doesn’t get much more top-drawer than this. This year the festival runs 29 July-6 August. Due to the advanced level of the teaching, potential participants are mostly put forward by their professors or specifically headhunted by Papadopoulos and his team.