Joanna MacGregor is one of the world's most celebrated pianists and pedagogues, appearing as a concert pianist, curator and conductor

As Dame Myra Hess Chair of Piano and Head of Keyboard at the Royal Academy of Music she runs a thriving piano department for young pianists from all over the world.

Many of her students have gone on to great success in major competitions (such as Van Cliburn, Leeds, Rubinstein and Sydney International Piano Competitions), in representation by Young Concert Artists Trust, and to busy concert careers. She oversees two annual Piano Festivals at the Academy, and curates a year-round series at the Wigmore Hall for Academy pianists. She encourages her students to be as proactive and as creative as possible, ready for a 21st-century career.

Joanna serves regularly as a jury member and Chair of many eminent competitions. As a concert pianist she has performed in over eighty countries, appearing alongside distinguished conductors Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Simon Rattle and Ilan Volkov. Joanna has also performed with the London Symphony and BBC Symphony orchestras, Chicago, Melbourne and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras, Berlin Symphony Orchestra and Salzburg Camerata. She has premiered many landmark compositions, and performs regularly at major venues including Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre and Royal Albert Hall in London, Sydney Opera House, Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Her 2020 cycle of the complete Beethoven Sonatas was followed in 2023 by an immersive series of Schubert recitals. The 2023/24 season sees her performing in Europe and Scandinavia, China, Australia and the US.

Joanna is a regular broadcaster on TV and radio; as a recording artist she has made over forty solo and concerto recordings including the complete Chopin Mazurkas, the Mercury Prize-nominated Play, Bach’s Goldberg Variations (recorded at the Mozarteum in Salzburg) and Live in Buenos Aires with the Britten Sinfonia. Joanna has been the Artistic Director of Dartington Summer School, Bath International Music Festival, and the multi-arts Deloitte Ignite Festival at the Royal Opera House, as well as Aventures+ for Luxembourg Philharmonie. She made her conducting debut in 2002 and is the Music Director and Principal Conductor of Brighton Philharmonic, curating and conducting large-scale symphonic programmes as it approaches its centenary.