British/Romanian pianist Florian Mitrea was born in Bucharest and his early passion for the piano led to a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music in 2008, where he obtained his BMus with First Class Honours and the Regency Award for notable achievement. In the summer of 2014, he obtained his Master of Arts degree with Distinction and a DipRAM for his final recital, and received the Alumni Development Award for distinguished studentship. He held the Hodgson Memorial post-studentship Fellowship at RAM in 2014-2015 and continues to teach there within the piano department. Florian is currently studying with Boris Petrushansky at the Accademia Pianistica Internazionale “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola, Italy.

Florian is a Kirckman Concert Society Artist for 2018-19 and holds a Making Music Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artist Award for 2017-19. In January 2018 he was a finalist in China at the inaugural International Music Competition Harbin. In 2017 Florian was a double laureate at the Scottish International Piano Competition, awarded second prize overall and the Glasgow UNESCO City of Music Prize for the best performance of the commissioned piece. In the previous year Florian was joint winner of the Verona International Piano Competition and was awarded second prize in the major biennial James Mottram International Piano Competition at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK. This followed success in 2015 when he was a finalist (fourth prize and chamber music award) at the Hamamatsu Piano Competition and earlier was awarded second prizes at both the Santa Cecilia Competition in Porto, and the Premio Città di Imola at the Imola Academy. In 2014 Florian won third prize and the Classical Concerto Prize at the ARD International Competition in Munich, and first prize at Lagny-sur-Marne. Previous prizes include first prizes at the Panmusica 2010 Vienna International Piano Competition, the Beethoven 2010, and Sheepdrove 2011 Intercollegiate Competitions in the United Kingdom. Earlier prizes include several first prizes in the Romanian Music Olympics and the Ada Ulubeanu Piano Competition, and third prize in the Jeunesses Musicales International Competition.

Florian has performed recitals and concertos across Romania, and in Austria, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea and the USA. He has been generously supported by the Ra?iu Family Foundation and held the 2010/2011 Enescu Scholarship awarded by the Romanian Cultural Institute in London and the 2012/2013 Roy King Scholarship at the Academy. His postgraduate studies were supported by the Martin Musical Scholarship Fund and the Tillett Trust and he was awarded the Silver Medal by the Worshipful Company of Musicians.Performances by Florian have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM in the UK, on Romanian radio and television (SRR and TVR), and Südwestrundfunk (SWR2) and Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR-Klassik) in Germany. Florian's first solo CD, Following the river:music along the Danube, was released on 5th January 2018.

Events