An award-winning pianist and versatile chamber musician, Irena Radić is a recent graduate of the Royal College of Music, London, where she studied with Niel Immelman and Dina Parakhina as a Cotes-Burgan Scholar. She completed her Master of Performance degree with distinction in 2020, and holds a First Class Bachelor of Music (Honours) degree (2018). Prior to that she attended the RCM’s Junior Department where she studied with Lynette Stulting, supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation, the Wolfson Foundation and the Else and Leonard Cross Charitable Trust. As a recipient of the John Mortimer Award, Irena was selected as a Philharmonia MMSF Piano Fellow 2018-19, and was a Help Musicians UK Postgraduate Award Holder 2018. She is also grateful to have received support from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, the Hilda Martindale Educational Trust and the St Marylebone Educational Foundation.
A finalist in the Bromsgrove International Musicians Competition (2018), Irena won second prize in the RCM’s Kendall Taylor Beethoven Competition (2018) and was a prizewinner at two international music festivals: Verão Classico Masterclasses (2017) (Portugal) and Alion Baltic International Music Festival (2017) (Estonia). Other awards include the Teresa Carreño Piano Prize (2014), Young Musician of the Year (2013) at both Peterborough and Oundle Music Festivals, the Head of Junior Programmes Prize (2013), and runner up in the Gordon Turner Memorial Competition (2013) receiving the May Edwards Memorial Prize. She was also chosen to perform at the Wigmore Hall as a prizewinner in the Jaques Samuel Junior Department Piano Festival (2012 & 2013). Irena has performed in venues such as the Royal Festival Hall, The Forge, Bolivar Hall, Routh Hall, West Road Concert Hall and the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall. She has also performed in numerous masterclasses with pianists including Bruno Canino, Charles Owen, Cristina Ortiz, Eldar Nebolsin, Jura Margulis, Mikhail Voskresensky and Norma Fisher.
Most recently, performances have featured works such as Rachmaninoff’s 10 Preludes Op.23, Brahms’ Piano Trio no.1 in B major, Prokofiev’s Five Melodies Op.35 for Violin & Piano, Poulenc’s Sonata for Flute & Piano, Schumann’s ThreeRomances Op.94 for Oboe & Piano and Beethoven’s Piano Trio in D major Op.70 No.1 ‘Ghost’. Other recent performances have included Mozart’s Sonata in D for 2 Pianos, Schumann’s Humoreske Op.20, Shostakovich’s Piano Trio no.2 in E minor, a world premiere of Tantrum – a new work for Piano and Percussion by Nino Russell, and two performances of Bartok’s Sonata for 2 Pianos and Percussion. She regularly works with musicians including Martin James Bartlett (piano), Katherine Bryer (oboe), Sirius Chau (flute), and is a founding member Trio Tonada with David López Ibañez (violin) and Deni Teo (cello). With Swedish guitarist Jonatan Bougt, she creates new arrangements for their Guitar and Piano duo and their current programme includes Ravel’s Ma Mère l’Oye and Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes Op.34, which they have arranged with kind permission from Irina Shostakovich. In 2016 they won second prize at the Twents Guitar Festival in the Netherlands.
"Music festival secretary, Felicity Kamminga, described Irena’s talent as startling and her performance capable of creating an electric atmosphere."
-Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Alongside her career as a concert pianist, Irena is a dedicated and passionate teacher who has a wide range of students of all ages and abilities. When working with children, her teaching is inspired by the Suzuki method, having studied with Jenny Macmillan from an early age. Irena teaches privately and, since 2020, as a Visiting Music Teacher at St Catherine’s School in Bramley.
Irena also plays orchestral piano and celeste and has performed with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Bernard Haitink, Diego Masson, Alexander Polishchuk, Peter Stark, Richard Dickins and Tim Lines in venues including Cadogan Hall, St John’s Smith Square and the Royal Festival Hall. Recent performances include works such as Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Ravel’s Daphnis & Chloé, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite, Shostakovich’s Symphonies nos. 1 & 5, Bernstein’s West Side Story – Symphonic Dances, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, Reich’s Three Movements for Orchestra and Webern’s Five Pieces for Orchestra.
