International Piano
International Piano is a London-based magazine devoted entirely to the piano and to the people who play, teach, make, record and listen to it. Published in the United Kingdom and read around the world, it serves performers, students, teachers, manufacturers and committed enthusiasts alike. Its remit is deliberately broad: the magazine celebrates the piano in all its forms, from historic fortepianos to modern concert grands and digital keyboards, and each issue mixes interviews, features, news and reviews covering leading artists of today as well as the great pianists of the past. For readers who want a single title that follows the whole piano world rather than one corner of it, International Piano has long positioned itself as the leading independent voice in the field.
A Magazine From the Rhinegold Stable
For much of its modern history International Piano was a flagship title of Rhinegold Publishing, the London specialist publisher of performing-arts magazines based in Rugby Street. Rhinegold described it as one of its flagship publications, sitting alongside titles covering opera, classical music and music teaching. An issue from late 2012, for example, was published bimonthly from that London base, with issues appearing in January, March, May, July, September and November, and it was already available in digital form for tablet and online reading as well as in print. The magazine carries the ISSN 2042-0773. That Rhinegold period gave the title its established shape: a bimonthly rhythm, a loyal international following, and a reputation as an authoritative and lively forum for every aspect of the instrument.
Editors and Editorial Succession
The magazine's modern editorial history is well documented. Claire Jackson edited International Piano into the middle of the last decade, and in May 2015 Rhinegold announced that Owen Mortimer would take over from the July/August issue. Mortimer arrived after three years as deputy editor of Opera Now, another Rhinegold title, and held a master's degree in music from Oxford University, where his finals recital had been on the French horn. An accomplished amateur pianist himself, with a particular interest in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century repertoire, he set out to build on the magazine's standing among professional pianists and serious amateurs and to reflect a growing global market in keyboards and piano playing. By 2023 the editor was Tim Parry, who conducted the magazine's cover interviews with leading pianists and oversaw its features and reviews coverage through a period of further change in frequency and ownership.
Acquisition by the Mark Allen Group
In July 2018 the Mark Allen Group acquired all the assets of the Rhinegold stable, a move that brought International Piano together with sister titles including Classical Music magazine, Opera Now and Music Teacher. The Mark Allen Group had previously bought Gramophone in 2013, so the acquisition placed International Piano within a larger family of established classical-music publications. Listings for the magazine now give its publisher as Mark Allen Business and Leisure, and digital editions are distributed internationally through services such as Zinio and PocketMags, keeping the London-edited title in front of subscribers well beyond the United Kingdom. The change of owner did not change the magazine's subject or its audience; it remained a specialist piano title, but one now backed by a bigger magazine group with a substantial music portfolio.
From Bimonthly to Quarterly
Frequency has evolved with the market. For many years International Piano appeared bimonthly, six times a year. In spring 2024 the magazine announced that it was going back to its roots and returning to a quarterly publication schedule, with four issues a year. The publisher promised that the essentials would continue unchanged: extensive coverage of new releases and historic pianists, lively comment and reviews, educational advice and rare sheet music. The spring 2024 issue showed what that meant in practice. Its cover featured the Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky, interviewed by editor Tim Parry about his album of Wagner transcriptions and his own arrangements of scenes from Götterdämmerung, while inside the issue ranged from the legacy of a pupil of Clara Schumann to the artistry of Dame Myra Hess, remembered for her wartime National Gallery performances.
Interviews With Leading Pianists
The cover interview is the centrepiece of a typical issue. Recent years have seen the magazine put a succession of major artists on its cover and give them extended space to discuss new recordings and the thinking behind them. The May 2023 issue featured Zlata Chochieva, then based in Berlin, talking about an album centred on Schumann and Ravel and about her studies in Moscow with Mikhail Pletnev. The September 2023 issue featured Haochen Zhang discussing Liszt's Transcendental Studies, his upbringing as a child prodigy in China, his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and his victory at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009. Other interviews in the same period covered Marc-André Hamelin's recordings of Fauré, Daniel-Ben Pienaar's complete Haydn sonatas, and piano duo Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman on their Scharwenka recordings, showing a remit that runs from headline soloists to specialist duos.
Repertoire, Recordings and Historic Pianists
Beyond the interviews, International Piano is known for deep dives into repertoire and recorded history. Its Repertoire Guide leads readers through the recorded history of a chosen work, as when Charles Timbrell surveyed Schumann's Faschingsschwank aus Wien. Jed Distler contributed a survey of recordings of Ligeti's Études, and Jeremy Nicholas investigated the history on record of Godowsky's Symphonic Metamorphosis on themes from Die Fledermaus and wrote on neglected composers such as Adolph von Henselt. Historic pianists are a recurring strand: Bryce Morrison's series on polarising pianists examined the legacy of Moriz Rosenthal, and he also considered Vladimir Horowitz, while Mark Ainley explored figures such as Carl Friedberg and began a regular column on riches from pianists of the past. Farhan Malik's series on great Russian pianists profiled Samuil Feinberg. This archival depth, alongside reviews of new releases by artists from Martha Argerich to Yuja Wang, is central to the magazine's identity.
Practical Help for Players and Returners
International Piano is not only for professionals and collectors. A distinctive strand of the magazine is practical and educational, aimed at students, teachers, amateur players and adults returning to the instrument. Murray McLachlan contributed a continuing series of guides for pianists returning to playing, a feature that acknowledges how many readers come back to the piano after years away and need structured encouragement. Issues have also rounded up the piano courses on offer at British conservatoires, published repertoire advice and included sheet music, and run a One to Watch feature spotlighting emerging talent, such as Ukrainian pianist Illia Ovcharenko after his win at the Honens Competition. A Music of My Life feature invites a pianist — Bertrand Chamayou in one recent issue — to name the pianists and recordings that shaped them, connecting readers' own listening with that of the artists they follow.
Reviews, News and the Wider Piano World
Reviews coverage in each issue extends from new piano recordings to live concerts and festivals, with reviewers reporting from venues and events in London, Lucerne, San Francisco, Aldeburgh and Bad Kissingen in recent issues alone. News coverage follows competitions, prizes and appointments across the piano world; the magazine reported, for instance, on Alexandre Kantorow being named recipient of the 2024 Gilmore Artist Award. Its contributor list reads as a roll call of respected piano specialists, including Jeremy Nicholas, Bryce Morrison, Jed Distler, Mark Ainley, Kenneth Hamilton and Murray McLachlan, and in earlier Rhinegold years names such as Jessica Duchen, Michael Church and Benjamin Ivry. That bench of specialist writers underpins the magazine's claim to authority with teachers, students and the trade, including the manufacturers and retailers who form part of its readership.
Who International Piano Is For
The magazine describes its audience as everyone from dedicated amateurs and students to professional pianists, teachers and aficionados, and its contents are arranged to serve that whole spectrum in a single issue: a cover interview for the enthusiast, recorded-history features for the collector, repertoire guidance for the student and practical series for the returning player. Readers can take it in print or as a digital edition on web, desktop, tablet and phone, and subscriptions are sold internationally. Based in London, in England, but international in both name and outlook, International Piano remains the United Kingdom's specialist magazine for the piano world, published quarterly by the Mark Allen Group and continuing the work it carried out for years as a Rhinegold flagship. Its official website is international-piano.com, where readers can find current issue details and subscription information.
