Biography text by Paul Morris.
Ivan Hovorun is forging a reputation as one of the most acutely perceptive and insightfully intelligent musicians of our time.
Born in Ukraine, Mr Hovorun’s piano studies began with his mother, herself a talented professional musician, at the age of five and at the age of six went on to study at the Krushelnytska Music High School.
Ivan Hovorun first performed for the public of his native city at the age of nine. He was only eleven when he first performed with a full orchestra, since when he has been invited to perform annually with the Lviv Symphony Orchestra.
Mr Hovorun chose to pursue his higher musical studies in England, having been awarded a scholarship in 2004 to study at the Royal Northern College of Music, from which he graduated with a Master of Music degree in 2011.
Participating in masterclasses led by Howard Shelley, Barry Douglas, Stephen Hough, Charles Rosen, Peter Donohoe, Imogen Cooper, Stephen Kovacevich, Vovka Ashkenazy, Jean Efflam Bavouzet, Francois-Joel Thiollier, Boris Petrushansky, Eliso Virsaladze, Dmitry Bashkirov and Arie Vardi , Ivan Hovorun has also studied with Graham Scott, Nelson Goerner, Alexander Melnikov and Michel Beroff.
Mr Hovorun has performed with major Eastern and Western European orchestras as diverse as the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine and the Manchester Camerata, Collegium Musicum. His extensive list of artistic collaborations has seen him work with Kenneth Woods, John Traill, Andre de Ridder, Clarc Rudell, Gordan Nikolitch.
In past seasons Mr Hovorun’s festival and orchestral appearances have included Scarlatti, Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Chopin and Rachmaninov Festivals at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester; the International Rachmaninov Conference in the same city; and the James Macmillan Festival, Alexander Goehr Festival and Judith Weir Festival at the Wigmore Hall in London and at the RNCM; Buckingham Summer Festival.
Ivan Hovorun’s tally of solo recitals is truly impressive, encompassing a diverse collection of venues including: Italy’s Saluzzo, Sermoneta, Imola and Ragusa Ibla, Sicily; London’s St Martin-in-the-Fields, St James’s Piccadilly, St Lawrence Jewry and One Moorgate Place; Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and Chetham’s School of Music; and a wealth of English cathedrals including Lincoln, Blackburn, Chichester, Ripon, Chichester and Southwell Minster.
In recent years, Mr Hovorun’s performances have explored a richly diverse repertoire, including the piano works on the Folia Theme, Grand Sonatas and complete Franz Liszt Etudes. He has assembled these works into performance programmes which are designed as complex syntheses of knowledge, experience and interpretation, presented through the medium of consummate musicianship. These programmes aim innovatively to enlighten, entertain and educate, compelling the audience into an interactive process of comparison, thought and analysis through the format of the performance.
Ivan Hovorun is the winner of numerous competition prizes and scholarships, including the Ragusa Ibla International Piano Competition (Italy), the Farbotony National Piano Competition (Ukraine), the Premio Speciale Accademia di Imola (Italy), the Intercollegiate Sheepdrove Piano Competition, the Philharmonia Orchestra Martin Musical Scholarship, the Myra Hess Award from the Musicians Benevolent Fund, the Hattori Foundation Award, the Grant from the Solti Foundation, the Yamaha UK Scholarship, and the John Halsall Scholarship.
Mr Hovorun’s recordings include Lvov TV Young Musician (Ukraine, 1994), the Radio Live Farbotony Competition (2001), Chandos Chan 10455 RNCMWO/Rundell: Liszt Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Melodies at BBC Studio 7, Manchester (2007), and a MIFCO promotional CD/DVD Recording Duet (2011), Stoller Hall (2017), Halle St Peters (2020, 2021).