Jan Loeffler
Pianist and pedagogue Jan Loeffler has built an international career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher, working extensively across the UK, Europe, Asia and North America. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg with Prof. Silke-Thora Matthies and at the Royal Academy of Music, London, with Ian Fountain, following earlier studies with Prof. Karl-Heinz Simon and Christopher Elton.
Jan has been a member of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire faculty since 2013, leading a class of principal-study pianists. He joined Junior RBC in 2015 and was appointed Keyboard Department Coordinator in 2023. He has served on the faculty of the InterHarmony International Music Festival (Italy) since 2015, and works additionally at Radley College, Warwick University. He formerly held the role of external examiner at Leeds Conservatoire.
His students have achieved major competition successes, including first prizes at the Liszt Society International Piano Competition, Vienna International Piano Competition, Wales International Piano Festival, Vivaldi International Music Competition, San Francisco International Innovative Music Competition, and the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Junior Intercollegiate Piano Competition. They are supported by organisations such as The Keyboard Charitable Trust, Future Talent, and the London Music Fund.
Graduates of his class continue their studies at leading conservatoires and universities including the Royal College of Music, Royal Academy of Music, Franz Liszt Academy (Budapest), Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, University of Michigan, and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, several with scholarships and teaching assistantships.
Jan teaches and coaches pianists who have performed at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), the Vienna Musikverein (Gläserner Saal), The Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), Royal Festival Hall, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, and Buckingham Palace, and who have appeared with ensembles including the City of Birmingham Symphony Youth Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Asian Chamber Orchestra, and on tour with the National Open Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
He gives regular masterclasses and presentations internationally, at institutions including the Colburn School (Los Angeles), Mannes School of Music (New York), Vanderbilt University (Nashville), and the Hochschule für Musik Dresden, as well as in Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Chongqing and Tianjin.
As an adjudicator, he has chaired the Jersey Young Musician of the Year and the World Piano Teachers Association (WPTA) Hong Kong & Macau Competition finals. He has also served on juries for the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Competition (Tennessee), the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Intercollegiate Competition (junior and senior divisions), and Chetham’s School of Music Beethoven Prize. In 2026 he will serve on the jury of the 3rd Vienna International Piano Competition and join the faculty of its Summer School.
Jan’s research was selected for presentation at EPTA-UK and the National Conference for Keyboard Pedagogy (USA). He has contributed to the EPTA Journal, delivered pre-concert talks, including with Sir Mark Elder, and provided commentary for the Times Radio Breakfast Show on pianist Lang Lang’s article regarding parental involvement in instrumental education.
As a committee member of the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe, he is passionate about, and actively involved in, supporting laureates of major international competitions including the Géza Anda, Leeds, Busoni, Rubinstein, Cleveland, and Long-Thibaud-Crespin competitions, as well as Rudolf Buchbinder’s Prix Serdang.
A national first-prize winner (piano duo) and national finalist (solo) in Jugend musiziert, one of Germany’s national music competitions, Jan has performed concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms with orchestras such as Camerata Europeana, Philharmonie Heidelberg, and the Helios Chamber Orchestra, under conductors including Radoslaw Szulc, Owen Leech and Jürgen Weisser. His chamber collaborations include performances with musicians from the Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Singers, Staatskapelle Weimar and Camerata Ireland at venues including the National Concert Hall Dublin, Cheltenham Town Hall, Warwick Arts Centre, Sheldonian Theatre (Oxford), Wilton’s Music Hall (London), Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal, and Forum Leverkusen, as well as several universities across the United States.
In 2026 he will give the world premiere of Piano Sonata No. 3 by New York-based composer Steven Christopher Sacco, written for and dedicated to him, with the composer in attendance.
Selected Reviews
“He successfully engaged the students […]. The masterclass that followed was excellent; he has wonderful musical insights grounded in a thorough knowledge of style and performance practice, and very practical advice with a very positive approach. He was exceedingly wellreceived by the students, performers and observers alike.” — Teresa de Jong Pombo, Piano Faculty, The Colburn School of Performing Arts, Los Angeles
“You cannot but notice the fact that he is a very experienced Lied accompanist and chamber musician, which shows in his very nuanced pianism. The extremely dense texture of the Brahms D minor piano concerto was beautifully crafted with a lot of attention to detail, whilst getting rid of some of its potentially overbearing power. The artist found his ideal hunting ground in the dark sonic landscapes that characterise Brahms’ music.” — Die Rheinpfalz
“Loeffler interpreted Chopin’s Scherzo No. 2 with strong dynamics. He portrayed the highly virtuosic piece with a sense of wild drama. Under his fingers the grand piano erupted like a volcano and the passionate sonorities seemed to run through the hall like streams of glowing lava.” — Sulzbach-Rosenberger Zeitung
“Loeffler’s performance of the Schubert Winterreise cycle was one of the most moving musical experiences in the twenty years I’ve been presenting these concerts. It was well beyond technically accurate – it was musically sensitive and expressive. His collaboration with the singer was more than complementary; it became an essential and critical part of the message of the text.” — Dr. Jerome Reed, Chair of Piano Faculty, Lipscomb University | Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame (USA)