IAN HOBSON – UNITED KINGDOM/USA (Chair)

Pianist and conductor Ian Hobson—called “powerful and persuasive” by The New York Times— is recognized internationally for his command of an extraordinarily comprehensive repertoire, his consummate performances of the Romantic masters, his deft and idiomatic readings of neglected piano music old and new, and his assured conducting from both the piano and the podium. Maestro Hobson currently serves as Guest Conductor of the esteemed Sinfonia Varsovia and Music Director of the Sinfonia da Camera, a professional chamber orchestra affiliated with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where Mr. Hobson is the Swanlund Emeritus Professor of Music.

Mr. Hobson has dedicated himself to studying such lesser-known masters as Ignaz Moscheles, Johann Hummel, and Richard Stöhr. He has also been an effective advocate of works by several noted contemporary composers, including Benjamin Lees, John Gardner, David Liptak, Alan Ridout, and Yehudi Wyner. Mr. Hobson has to date amassed a discography of some 60 releases, including the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven and Schumann and a complete edition of Brahms’s Variations for Piano. Recently, Mr. Hobson has been recording the solo and orchestral works of Polish composer Moritz Moszkowski; the first volume of orchestral works was awarded a 2020 ‘Diapason d’or – Découverte’ by the French magazine Diapason.

As guest soloist, Ian Hobson has appeared with many of the world’s major orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Florida, Houston, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and the American Symphony Orchestra and Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico. Abroad, he has been heard with Great Britain’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and Hallé Orchestra, ORF-Vienna, Orchester der Beethovenhalle, Moscow Chopin Orchestra, Israeli Sinfonietta, and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

One of the youngest ever graduates of the Royal Academy of Music, Mr. Hobson began his international career in 1981 when he won First Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition, after having earned silver medals at both the Arthur Rubinstein and Vienna-Beethoven competitions. Born in Wolverhampton, England, he studied at Cambridge University, and at Yale University, in addition to his earlier studies at the Royal Academy of Music.