Jon Urdapilleta

The Basque pianist Jon Urdapilleta has performed in halls such as Steinway Hall and St. John’s Smith Square in London, the National Auditorium and Teatro Real in Madrid, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Zaragoza Auditorium, the Kursaal Auditorium and the Victoria Eugenia Theatre in San Sebastián, and the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao. In addition, he has offered recitals at the Festival International Piano Classique de Biarritz, the Juan March Foundation, Donostia Musika and the San Sebastián Musical Fortnight, the Miramon Matinées of the Euskadiko Orkestra, and TIHMS in the Netherlands, among others. Jon has also performed as a soloist with the Euskadiko Orkestra and the Santa Cecilia Classical Orchestra. He regularly collaborates in concerts with the Orfeón Donostiarra, having performed works such as Brahms’ Requiem and Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle. As a répétiteur, he has collaborated with conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Ivan Fischer, Lahav Shani, and Juanjo Mena. He has been Guest Conductor of the Orfeón Donostiarra for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony at the 84th San Sebastián Musical Fortnight.
He has received advice from musicians such as Galina Eguiazarova, Jacques Rouvier, Christopher Elton, Yevgeny Sudbin, Pascal Devoyon, Kristian Bezuidenhout, and Maxim Vengerov.
Jon studied piano at the San Sebastián Municipal School of Music with his mother, Professor María Isabel Martín. He continued his studies, obtaining a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Arts from the Royal Academy of Music in London with Rustem Hayroudinoff and Pascal Nemirovski, graduating with the highest marks. At the same time, he studied orchestral conducting with Dominic Grier and Sian Edwards. His interest in historical instruments led him to deepen his knowledge in this field with the fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout.
Currently, Jon is pursuing his Doctorate in Performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London. His thesis, supervised by Dr. Roy Howat, focuses on the integration of cante jondo in the piano work of Manuel de Falla. He is also a tenured piano professor at the Francisco Escudero Conservatory of San Sebastián and, from the 2025-2026 academic year, a supervisor of final projects at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid.