Jayson Gillham

Australian pianist Jayson Gillham has parlayed his earlier child prodigy status into a growing career at home and in Europe. Gillham was born in 1986 in Dalby, Queensland. He started piano lessons at age four and soon after that made his debut with a Bach minuet at the local Dalby Eisteddfod festival, and he took home first prize in his age section there at seven. He began lessons that year with a teacher in Toowoomba, an hour away, and then at 14, commuted to Brisbane for studies with Leah Horowitz. After a semifinal placement at the Sydney International Piano Competition, he was ready for studies at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, from which he graduated in 2007. Then he moved to London, enrolling in the master’s program and studying with Christopher Elton. Gillham was honored as Commonwealth Musician of the year in 2012 and also won prizes at the International Chopin Piano Competition, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and the Leeds International Piano Competition. His 2014 performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, at the Montreal International Music Competition brought him first prize and widespread notice. Gillham has performed with the the Sydney Symphony under Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Melbourne Symphony under Benjamin Northey, several major English orchestras, the Nashville Symphony, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and the Wuhan Philharmonic, among other groups. He has given recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Louvre in Paris, City Recital Hall in Sydney, and the Melbourne Recital Centre, among other venues. Gillham made his recording debut on Australia’s ABC Classics label in 2016 with a recital of music by Bach, Schubert, and Chopin. He has continued to record for ABC Classics, issuing performances of the brutally difficult Medtner Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 on ABC Classics. He lives in London. ~ James Manheim