British pianist Ashok Gupta (b.1988) studied at Cambridge University, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he obtained his Master’s degree with Distinction.

Ashok has won major prizes at several international competitions.  He is the recipient of the Chamber Music Prize in the Bonn International Beethoven Competition, the Kerr Memorial Prize for most promising solo pianist in London’s Royal Overseas League Competition, and the Accompanist’s Prize in the Kathleen Ferrier Competition.

He has performed in major concert venues including Wigmore Hall, London; Symphony Hall, Birmingham; the Sage, Gateshead; the Mozarteum, Salzburg and, in July this year, he will give a solo recital at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn.  He has also performed in several international music festivals including the BBC Proms, the London Music Festival and Oxford Lieder Festival.

Ashok’s diverse musical passions include early music and jazz.  He is as at-home playing the harpsichord in a Baroque ensemble as he is at the piano in a Jazz quartet.  Ashok has loved American music from an early age.  He recently devised and performed a “Scott Joplin Cabaret” for Cheltenham International Festival, exploring the composer’s life and influences with an ensemble of singers and players.  There will be a repeat performance at St. John’s, Smith Square in London this autumn.

Ashok’s versatility as a continuo player and orchestral keyboardist has put him in demand with several leading orchestras and conductors, including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Sir Roger Norrington, the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda, the Irish Chamber Orchestra under Jonathan Cohen and the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra under Ivor Bolton.  With the Mozarteum Orchestra, he has appeared as fortepiano soloist in Jonathan Dove’s An Airmail Letter from Mozart, which brought together his fondness for historical instruments and contemporary music.  In December this year he will play continuo with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester under their new music director, Robin Ticciati.

Ashok has also worked as a répétiteur for some of Europe’s leading opera companies, including Glyndebourne Festival Opera, English National Opera and Dutch National Opera.

Ashok has received the Dean’s Award for Exceptional Achievement from Birmingham City University and the Silver Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians.

Ashok is the recipient of major grants from the Leverhulme Trust, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Leonard Hancock Memorial Foundation.  He began learning the piano at the age of four and has received tuition from Margaret Fingerhut, Charles Owen and Pascal Nemerovski.