Joanna MacGregor. Photo: Peter Williams

visit Joanna MacGregor's web site at:
www.soundcircus.com

In PianoWorld, learning the piano is exciting, humorous, occasionally mysterious and definitely lots of fun. Ever since I first started teaching children, I've wanted to convey the basics along with an energy to get into all kinds of music right from the start: from Mozart to minimalism, nursery rhymes to new music, Beethoven to the blues. So follow the story and enjoy yourself ­ the piano is waiting for you ...

Joanna MacGregor's wide-ranging career combines the established piano repertoire complemented by her passion for jazz and new music and the championing of living composers in all traditions. She persistently challenges the divisions and labels which conventionally separate different traditions.

Joanna MacGregor actively promotes other artists' work, and originated a highly regarded and successful series of annual contemporary music festivals in London - PLATFORM 1, 2 and 3, which ran from 1991 to 1993. She was Artistic Director of SoundCircus, a broad based series of concerts at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. She has created her own record label based on this series, SoundCircus - The Label, the first recordings having recently been released to much acclaim. She has also recorded for Collins Classics.

Working with and for young people is very important to Joanna MacGregor. She regularly gives masterclasses and teaches at Dartington International Summer School, Hope University College, Liverpool and the Royal Northern College of Music. She is Professor of Music at Gresham College in the City of London, and also an Honorary Fellow of both the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music.

Joanna MacGregor is currently Artistic Director of the Society for the Promotion of New Music.

Joanna MacGregor's international career has seen performances with leading orchestras world-wide, including the Rotterdam, Oslo and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, and Sydney, Berlin and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. Amongst the many distinguished conductors with whom she has collaborated are Pierre Boulez, Michael Gielen, Michael Tilson Thomas and Sir Simon Rattle. She regularly plays with all the leading British orchestras and is familiar to television audiences from her many appearances including her series Strings, Bows and Bellows and the Last Night of the Proms.