Department of Music

Martin Jones, one of Britain's most highly regarded solo pianists, will be giving a master class to pre-selected students from the McIntire Department of Music on Monday, September 30th in Old Cabell Hall at 10am.  The master class is free and open to the public.

Mr Jones studied at London's Royal Academy of Music with Guido Agosti, Guy Jonson, and Gordon Green. He won the Dame Myra Hess award in 1968.[2] and has been highly regarded in the international arena since his debuts at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and in New York's Carnegie Hall. He is one of Britain's most highly regarded solo pianists, in demand for recitals and concerto performances on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Jones has performed with various orchestras throughout the world, including the London Festival Orchestra, the Halle Orchestra, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Welsh Orchestra.Mr. Jones is a prolific recording artist and since 1988 has recorded many discs for Nimbus Records. This include the complete solo piano works of Felix Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms, Debussy, Percy Grainger, Szymanowski (voted Best Instrumental Recording of 1996 by the Spanish magazine CD Compact) and the sonatas of Alun Hoddinott. The soundtrack of the film ‘Howards End’ features Martin Jones performing Grainger’s Bridal Lullaby and Mock Morris. He has held several academic appoinments, and has served on the jury of major piano competitions, including the William Kapell International Piano Competition at the University of Maryland.

Quotes for Martin Jones

"...you could hardly wish for a more sympathetic and scintillating soloist..." Gramophone 2009

"Martin Jones is a committed soloist, handling the limpid piano writing of the first movement with great delicacy." International Record Review 2009

“…a pianist of a beguiling fluency and affection, sympathetic to the widest variety of material…his playing is of an exemplary taste and clarity yet also blessed with a no less distinctive style and character.” Gramophone 2001

“In Martin Jones’s hands, the original orchestral colours really seemed to glow, and his pearly quiet tone in the central Berceuse was nothing short of magical.”  The Independent 2000

“Martin Jones’s lavish and immaculately shaded accounts never lose concentration…this set is a joy.” The Independent 1999

“Jones is a pianist who, while not indulging in understatement, eschews histrionics and approaches the most mountainous piano writing with a totally civilised sensibility. Drama there was aplenty… sensitive tone and control of the development of things never deserted him.” The Advertiser, Adelaide 1998

“Martin Jones, unfazed by some near-murderous technical difficulties, plays with musicianship as seasoned as it is incisive” Classic FM Magazine 1997

Old Cabell Hall is located on the south end of UVA's historic Lawn, directly opposite the Rotunda.  Parking is available in the Central Grounds Parking Garage, or in the lots off University Avenue at the University Corner.  During weekdays Handicapped parking is available in the  in designated spaces on McCormick Avenue.

For more information please call the McIntire Department of Music at 434.924.3052.