The Basque pianist Jon Urdapilleta has performed in venues such as Steinway Hall and St. John’s Smith Square in London, the Auditorio Nacional and Teatro Real in Madrid, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Auditorio de Zaragoza, the Kursaal Auditorium and Victoria Eugenia Theatre in San Sebastián, and the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao. He has also given recitals at the Festival International Piano Classique in Biarritz, Fundación Juan March, Donostia Musika, San Sebastián’s Quincena Musical, Miramon Matinées of the Euskadiko Orkestra, and TIHMS in the Netherlands, among others.
Jon has appeared as a soloist with the Euskadiko Orkestra and the Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia. 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 worked with conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Iván Fischer, Lahav Shani, and Juanjo Mena. He was Guest Conductor of the Orfeón Donostiarra for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony at the 84th edition of the Quincena Musical in San Sebastián.
He has received guidance from musicians such as Galina Eguiazarova, Jacques Rouvier, Christopher Elton, Yevgeny Sudbin, Pascal Devoyon, Kristian Bezuidenhout, and Maxim Vengerov.
Jon began his piano studies at the Municipal School of Music in San Sebastián with his mother, Professor María Isabel Martín. He continued his training at the Royal Academy of Music in London, earning both a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Arts with highest distinction, studying with Rustem Hayroudinoff and Pascal Nemirovski. In parallel, 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 fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout.
Jon is currently pursuing a 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 works of Manuel de Falla. He is also a tenured piano professor at the Francisco Escudero Conservatory in San Sebastián, supervisor of final projects and, also, since the 2026–2027 academic year, collaborative pianist professor for the Voice Chair “Alfredo Kraus” Fundación Ramón Areces at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid.