Stuart O’Sullivan is one of Ireland’s most well known and successful pianists. Born in Dublin, he studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. He was the first graduate of the RIAM Music Performance degree programme, graduating with a final recital that included Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no.1, Chopin’s immensely difficult Opus 10 studies, and major works by Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Schumann, Prokoffiev and other composers. He received top marks.
Further studies took him to Italy, where he spent three years in Imola, studying under scholarship at the important Accademia Pianistica Internazionale, where his principal teacher was the world-renowned Russian pianist Lazar Berman. He also had many lessons with Karl-Heinz Kammerling in Germany. During his years as a student he was the winner of a great many prizes and scholarships, including more than twenty first prizes at national music competitions in Ireland, first prize at the RTE Musician of the Future (Chamber Music Category), The Brennan Prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition, and the Italian Government Scholarship. He was the winner of the RIAM’s most outstanding student award. He was also the grateful recipient of important funding from the Arts Council of Ireland, which enabled him to pursue studies in many European countries.
Stuart has performed extensively as a recitalist throughout Ireland, as well as in many other European countries. He has appeared as concerto soloist with both the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and the RTE Concert Orchestra. He has made many radio and television broadcasts on RTE, as well as the BBC, and also Dutch, German, Spanish and Italian radio stations.
He has a large and varied repertoire, ranging from Bach through the sonatas and concertos of the Viennese Classical Masters, to the great Romantic masterworks of Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Rachmaninov. He is also interested in contemporary music.
