Ian Munro

Ian Munro (born 1963) is an Australian pianist, composer, and music educator. His career has taken him to many countries in Europe, Asia, North America, and Australasia.

Early life and education Ian Munro attended Scotch College in Melbourne for his high school education.

He then attended the Victorian College of the Arts (1981–83). His early piano training was in Melbourne with Rodney Hurst, Marta Rostas (a pupil of Béla Bartók), Deirdre Vadas and Roy Shepherd (a pupil of Alfred Cortot) and he had further study in Vienna, London and Italy with Franz Zettl, Noretta Conci, Guido Agosti, and Michele Campanella. ) and he also has a special interest in new music. He has premiered or commissioned works by Peter Sculthorpe, Elena Kats-Chernin (her second piano concerto), Gordon Kerry, Ann Ghandar, Raffaele Marcellino, Ross Edwards and Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, from whom he commissioned the piano cycle Silhouettes. These pieces were dedicated to significant 20th-century composers such as Debussy, Gershwin, Ives, Ravel, Schnittke, Stravinsky – and John Cage, which in true Cage style consisted of 33 seconds of silence.

During his time in Hobart he created and played a series of four recitals, "One Hundred Nineteens", in 1999, comprising one work from each year of the 20th century.

He has over 40 piano concerti in his repertoire, which includes the standard repertoire as well as such pieces as Hans Werner Henze's epic concerto Requiem. He has performed with all the major orchestras in Australia, as well as orchestras in New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Portugal, Russia, the USA, and China, and in the UK (the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra). He has broadcast widely for the BBC. the Medici, Belcea and Goldner String Quartets, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet,

Munro has a special interest in the music of Arthur Benjamin as a result of meeting Benjamin's pupil Joan Trimble in 1990, and has recorded many of his little-known piano pieces. For his Benjamin recordings, he has also written a short biography of the composer, filling a serious gap in the literature. His other writings include a biography of Katharine Parker.

Munro has recorded a wide range of music for ABC Classics, Hyperion, Cala, Naxos (including Marco Polo), Tall Poppies and Alto. His recordings include his own realisations of some unfinished piano pieces by Franz Schubert; and Russell Gilmour's Keating Tangos and Whitlam Rags projects. Carl Vine, Martin Wesley-Smith, and Malcolm Williamson. with his piano concerto Dreams, which then became a set piece for the twelve finalists in the piano section of that year's competition. The work was broadcast across Europe on radio and television, and was performed in Russia.

In 2011 he was Musica Viva's composer-in-residence.

Teacher Ian Munro headed the piano department at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music between 1995 and 1999, then joined the staff at the University of New South Wales and at the Australian National Academy of Music.

Juror He has been a juror on various competitions, including: the 2003 Clara Haskil International Piano Competition the 2008 New Zealand Kerikeri National Piano Competition, the 2008 Sydney International Piano Competition.

Awards and nominations 1982: Winner, ABC Instrumental and Vocal Competition (now the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards)

Personal In 2011 Munro was living in Newcastle, New South Wales with his wife Helen English, a musicologist, and their children.