Anthony Byrne (born 30 July 1958) is an Irish pianist.

Early life and education

Byrne was born in Dublin, Ireland. He studied with Marie Jones and John O'Conor. In 1980 he studied in the University of Western Ontario, Canada with the British pianist Peter Katin. In 1981 and 1982 he studied in New York with Adele Marcus whilst also studying conducting with Vincent La Selva at the Juilliard School. Byrne's final studies were with Alexander Kelly in London, England.

Career

Byrne has given many recitals and broadcasts both RTÉ and the BBC including his Dublin debut, National Concert Hall 1985, London debut, Purcell Room 1986 and Wigmore Hall 1989. He has performed extensively with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and RTÉ Concert Orchestra including the Irish premiere of Leroy Anderson's Piano Concerto in 1997. He has also performed in the US, Canada and Japan. As a Chamber musician, he has worked with many of Ireland's leading musicians and singers. He performed the complete sonatas for piano and violin by Beethoven with Alan Smale, the leader of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra.

Contemporary music

Byrne most important work has been in the promotion and performing of Irish contemporary piano music. He has performed and broadcast more than 50 works including 17 first performances. Irish works performed: First performances marked (1st) Elain Agnew: Gerald Barry: Brian Beckett: Seóirse Bodley: Brian Boydell: John Buckley: Rhona Clarke: Jerome de Bromhead: Raymond Deane: Benjamin Dwyer: Hormoz Farhat (Persian composer living in Ireland): John Gibson Fergus Johnston: John Kinsella: Eibhlis Farrell: Philip Flood: Bernard Geary: Marion Ingoldsby: Philip Martin: Colman Pearce: Eric Sweeney: James Wilson:

Recordings

Recognition

Byrne is an Associate of the Royal College of Music, London and in 1993 was honoured in Japan with the Ishibashi Zogoro Memorial Scholarship for his work in Contemporary Irish Music. He has also been listed in the Encyclopedia of Ireland 2003 and Who's Who in Ireland 2006.

Teaching

Byrne has been a Senior Lecturer in Piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music since 1991.