Mahan Esfahani is represented by Rayfield Allied Worldwide.

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Mahan Esfahani

Harpsichord

  • Such virtuosity and disarming presentation suggests that Esfahani could inspire a whole new appreciation of the instrument.
    The Guardian
  • the amazing Esfahani
    The Herald (Glasgow)
  • Nothing could have prepared me for the brilliance and artistry of Mahan Esfahani, who, despite his young age, played with the musicality and virtuosity of a master ... not a single phrase lacked purpose or direction.
    Keyboard Magazine
  • ...daring and fiery performances...
    The Times
  • Esfahani has to be regarded as one of the foremost musicians of his generation and as one of the leading harpsichordists since the revival of that instrument in the twentieth century.
    British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
  • It would be hard not to be impressed by Iranian harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani ... In a beautifully chosen programme Esfahani’s touch was always insightful and, above all, visceral.
    The Guardian
  • The Harpsichord comes out of hiding ... magnificent.
    The Daily Telegraph

  • Praised by The Times for his ‘daring and fiery performances’ and by Opera Today as ‘the leading harpsichordist of his generation,’ the Iranian-born Mahan Esfahani (b. 1984) is the first harpsichordist to be named a BBC New Generation Artist and to be awarded a fellowship prize by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. Recent highlights have included performances of of Kalabis’ Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra (1975) with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Martinu’s Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra (1935) with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Jiri Belohlavek, and Poulenc’s Concert Champetre (1928) with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Last season, he also gave his solo debut at the Wigmore Hall (broadcast on BBC Radio 3), about which the Daily Telegraph exclaimed ”the harpsichord comes out of hiding…magnificent.’’ In addition, his recording of the Poulenc concerto was issued in May 2010 with BBC Music Magazine, and he has been featured as a “Hot Property” by Classic FM magazine.

    With a repertoire that spans four centuries, Esfahani works to take the harpsichord beyond the realm of ‘early music’ and to major festivals and series in the mainstream of Classical Music across Europe, Canada, and the United States. Highlights of the past season have included, in addition to numerous solo recitals, appearances as a director and soloist with the English Concert at the Lufthansa Festival, Montreal’s Arion Baroque Orchestra, and the Manchester Camerata, and his debut in the Far East with the Malaysian Philharmonic. In July of 2011 he will continue his pioneering work with the first solo harpsichord recital in the 116-year history of the Proms, and next season sees appearances as a director, harpsichordist/fortepianist, or concerto soloist with the Hamburger Sinfoniker, the Prague Symphony chamber concerts, the Istanbul Bach Days, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Festival of Flanders at Bruges, the New Dutch Academy in The Hague, New York’s Frick Collection, and across the United Kingdom.

    Esfahani studied as a President’s Scholar at Stanford University where his principal mentor was the musicologist George Houle; he went on to pursue his performance studies under the supervision of the Australian harpsichordist Peter Watchorn (Boston) and the Italian organist Lorenzo Ghielmi (Milan) before settling in the United Kingdom as Artist-in-Residence at New College, Oxford. In the autumn of 2010 he was made an honorary member of the senior common room at Keble College, Oxford.

    Mahan Esfahani is represented Worldwide by Ben Rayfield at Rayfield Allied.
    This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.

    • Recital at Bath Bachfest
      Guildhall, Bath, February 2013

      Such virtuosity and disarming presentation suggests that Esfahani could inspire a whole new appreciation of the instrument.
      Rian Evans, The Guardian

    • The Art of Fugue (Bach Arr. Esfahani), Academy of Ancient Music
      Cadogan Hall, London (July 2012)

      Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani's arrangement of The Art of Fugue, premiered by Esfanahi and members of the Academy of Ancient Music, made Bach's counterpoint glisten so brightly you could imagine – faint hope – you could comprehend its intricate workings.
      Fiona Maddocks, The Observer

    • Oxford Philomusica Summer Baroque
      Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford (July 2012)

      Aged only twenty eight, of Iranian origin, Esfahani has to be regarded as one of the foremost musicians of his generation and as one of the leading harpsichordists since the revival of that instrument in the twentieth century.
      British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

    • Recital at Paxton House
      Berwick-upon-Tweed (July 2012)

      It would be hard not to be impressed by Iranian harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani . . . In a beautifully chosen programme of Gibbons, d’Anglebert, Couperin, Ciaja and Bach, Esfahani’s touch was always insightful and, above all, visceral.
      Kate Molleson, The Guardian

    • Recital at the Frick Collection, New York City
      (April 2012)

      Mr. Esfahani offered an imaginative rendition of Rameau’s Gavotte and Variations, played with soulful flair and a sense of spontaneity…a colorful performance of William Croft’s Ground in C minor...Mr. Esfahani’s confident, characterful playing and tasteful ornamentation...Mr. Esfahani’s excellent performance of five Scarlatti sonatas, beginning with an elegant rendition of the Sonata in F minor (K. 462). Mr. Esfahani demonstrated impressive technique during the Sonata in G (K. 124) and again during the rapid-fire Sonata in D minor (K. 141).
      Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times

    • Recital at the Cleveland Museum of Art
      (April 2012)

      Esfahani established his credentials as a thoughtful, elegant player in four very different works by William Byrd...Esfahani found sense and structure everywhere while dazzling us with his digital prowess. J.S. Bach's English Suite No. 3 in g was sheerly delightful under Esfahani's fingers...Those who had already digested Esfahani's witty and evocative program notes probably tried to follow along with his game of assigning narratives to each of the pieces. Expressive rubatos, wild runs and arpeggios and sudden accelerandos only served to make their imagined stories more vivid. You could probably listen to these pieces all day without risking boredom...Esfahani is a quiet figure at the keyboard, but one who draws you powerfully into his own, personal intensity. His facial expressions are as arresting as his playing. The large audience responded more enthusiastically than I can ever remember for a harpsichord recital and Esfahani responded with a highly ornate, aria-like encore by Cimarosa. He needs to be invited back soon
      Daniel Hathaway, Cleveland Classical

    • J.S. Bach Goldberg Variations, Halifax Philharmonic Club
      (December 2011)

      The ideal interpreter of Bach’s astonishing genius…The harpsichord as an interpretative instrument never sounded so expressive. Mahan Esfahani’s wondrous technique, musicality and intensity of concentration made for an enthralling evening.
      Julia Anderson, Halifax Courier

    • York Early Music Festival
      (July 2011)

      Mahan Esfahani had earlier switched effortlessly between harpsichord and the more intimate virginals in toccatas, toyes and fancies from Elizabeth and Jacobean England. Always one to live dangerously, he took on some of the toughest pieces, notably Byrd’s Walsingham variations, and won the day with dazzling virtuosity. A maestro already, and still only 27.
      Martin Dreyer, York Press

    • Wigmore Hall recital with James Bowman
      May 2011

      Mahan Esfahani, who is quickly establishing himself as the leading harpsichordist of his generation', 'Esfahani is physically involved with his instrument, delighting in the sounds of its mechanism; rising from his seat as if his whole body is contributing to the production of sound, he positively foregrounds the instrument’s mechanism. Never does technique, albeit astonishing, outshine the music: an astounding array of tones and shades was matched by an attention to the expressivity of the dense counterpoint, and a concern to convey the power of harmonic tension and release.'
      Opera Today

    • Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall
      York University

      The work has a sarabande theme which frames 30 variations. They range from gentle doodles to lightning flashes. Esfahani was equal to them all. He varied the registrations on his two-manual instrument. But extra colours never clouded the clarity of the voices, even in Variation 10's fugue. He maintained this transparency in the whirlwind of Variation 12. His approach to the slower movements was extremely elastic, yet always persuasive, making the melancholy modulations of Variation 25 sound positively modern. Elsewhere, his fingerwork was dazzling, throwing off the impossibly speedy Variation 20 almost nonchalantly and making a startling toccata of Variation 29. This man has special powers. Bist Du Bei Mir (Stay By Me) as an encore was in keeping with the near-religious atmosphere he conjured. For this was nothing short of an act of worship.
      The Press, February 2011

    • J.S. Bach Goldberg Variations
      Old Town House of Haddington

      The young harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, in the Old Town House of Haddington, gave a wonderfully personal performance of the Goldberg Variations; sound and physicality both reflective of an individual emotional path taken through this most refined of works.
      Gramophone Magazine, November 2010

    • York Early Music Festival
      July 2010

      The Friday YEMF lunchtime recital (Unitarian Chapel) hosted a wide range of 17th and 18th-century harpsichord music by the excellent Mahan Esfahani. The programme opened with a Froberger toccata with dazzling keyboard skills, resulting in a polished and very animated performance. Indeed, as the Couperin confirmed, Mahan Esfahani is a consummate performer, playing with vitality, drive and authority... The opening of the Bach English Suite No.2 was like stepping into a musical Rolls Royce, the music sublime, the playing simply imperious.
      The Press

    • Wigmore Hall recital
      April 2010

      ..once seated at the keyboard, he becomes amazingly animated, his face registering every quiver of emotion, his right knee flying up when things get really animated…As for Esfahani’s playing, it makes maximum use of the harpsichord’s main expressive resources...the opening Adagio from Handel’s F major Suite, an impassioned song over a pacing left hand, took on a wonderful elastic quality. When the line arched upwards, the beat seemed momentarily pulled back; when it tumbled down, it urged forward, but never in a way that seemed mechanical. This was music, not the aural equivalent of a switchback.
      The Telegraph

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