Jonathan Morris was born in the Republic of Ireland in 1992. He started receiving piano lessons when he was ten years old, and eventually he became accepted into the Junior Department of the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin at the age of sixteen. Whilst in Ireland, he was taught by the prestigious Irish pianist Hugh Tinney, who came fifth in the 1987 Leeds International Piano Competition. Jonathan moved to London in 2010 to study the piano with Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, receiving a full scholarship from the Guildhall School Trust.
Jonathan has been involved with many major music festivals worldwide, including the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado. He attended Aspen for three consecutive years, receiving scholarship aid from many generous supporters, including the Polonsky Foundation in the UK. The following summer he travelled to Switzerland to take part in the Astona International Music Academy funded by further scholarship aid. His participation in festivals such as these, and his involvement in the classical music scene in London, has allowed him to receive tutoring from some of the finest musicians of this generation, such as Peter Donohoe, Cristina Oritz, and John O’Conor, among others.
Over the years Jonathan has frequently been successful in competitions. This year he came second in the Nordell Cup at the Feis Ceoil, Ireland’s leading national music festival. Last year he won both the Hamilton Harty Cup and the Anthony Glavin Trophy, along with an award of €1,000. Within the same month, he won the Guildhall School’s internal prize for piano ensembles, the Ivan Sutton Chamber Music Award. This enabled him to play in the prestigious Bishopsgate Institute with his chamber group, Trio Amicorum. The latter half of 2013 saw Jonathan’s first performance in London’s famous Wigmore Hall, playing Michael Tippett’s virtuosic Piano Sonata No. 2.
Jonathan finished his undergraduate studies at the Guildhall School in June of this year. He is currently studying for a master’s at Guildhall, and has plans to enter into several competitions over the coming year. Jonathan hopes to become more and more involved in various aspects of the music world, incorporating a keen interest in the area of improvised music to bring classical music to a wider audience.
