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 continues to cast fresh light on music conceived for the piano’s early and modern forms in a broad repertoire from Bach to Messiaen and many contemporary commissions.
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, Edinburgh, San Francisco, La Roque d’AntheĢron as well as Bath, the City of London and North Norfolk.
As a concerto soloist Melvyn has performed with ensembles such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, 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 Australian Chamber Orchestra.
Melvyn has 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. Others have discovered his work through his large discography, complete with ground-breaking fortepiano 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 2016), The Sunday Times commented that “The progression is from marvelousness to absolute delectation. His playing is always exquisite, but much more than that.” This 2024 release rounds off his discography of the Beethoven concerti, sonatas and smaller works.
Recent orchestral appearances include performances with MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and Filharmonie Brno (with Dennis Russell Davies), Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra 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, Oundle International Festival, and a symposium in Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.
With curator Paul Boucher, he continues his role in devising Music and Word, a musical collaboration with narrators including Dame Vanessa Redgrave, Dame Harriet Walter, Sir Derek Jacobi and Alex Lawther within the unique setting of Charleston Farmhouse in East Sussex, made famous by the Bloomsbury Group.
In addition to his concert and recording activities, Melvyn Tan gives masterclasses and is a regular adjudicator. He is also a 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.
