Jeremy Siepmann

"Jeremy Siepmann is an internationally acclaimed writer, musician, teacher and broadcaster, and the editor of Piano magazine. In recent years his continuing series for Naxos ? ?Life and Works' and 'ClJeremy Siepmannassics Explained' ? have received exceptional accolades from critics and listeners on both sides of the Atlantic.

Though long resident in England, Jeremy Siepmann was born and formally educated in the United States. After completing his studies at the Mannes College of Music in New York, he moved to London, at the suggestion of Sir Malcolm Sargent. After several years as a free-lance lecturer he was invited to join the staff of London University. For most of the last twenty years he has confined his teaching activity to the piano. His pupils, many coming from abroad for purposes of study with him, include pianists of worldwide repute.

As a writer he has contributed articles, reviews and interviews to numerous journals and reference works (including The New Statesman, The Musical Times, Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine and The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians) some of them being reprinted in book form (Oxford University Press, Robson Books). His books include a widely acclaimed biography of Chopin, two volumes on the history and literature of the piano, and a biography of Brahms. In December 1997 he was appointed editor of Piano magazine.

His career as a broadcaster began in New York in 1963 with an East Coast radio series on the life and work of Mozart, described by Alistair Cooke as ?the best music program on American radio"". On the strength of this, improbably, he was hired by the BBC as a humorist, in which capacity he furnished weekly satirical items on various aspects of American life. After a long break he returned to broadcasting in 1977, and has devised, written and presented more than 1,000 programs, including the international-award-winning series The Elements of Music. In 1988 he was appointed Head of Music at the BBC World Service, broadcasting to an estimated audience of 135 million. He left the Corporation in spring 1994 to form his own independent production company. "