Mishka Rushdie Momen — Pianist

“Mishka Rushdie Momen plays the piano extraordinarily well, but it is the purity and depth of her musical feeling that impress me most. She has the rare ability to communicate the essential meaning of whatever she plays.”

- Richard Goode

Hailed as ​“one of the most thoughtful and sensitive of British pianists” (The Times), Mishka Rushdie Momen captivates audiences with her refined and expressive playing. 

Mishka Rushdie Momen’s wide repertoire focuses on Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann, whilst reaching back to Gibbons and Rameau. Committed to performing new music, Mishka Rushdie Momen has commissioned works by Nico Muhly and Vijay Iyer, and premiered An Inviting Object by Héloïse Werner at the Lucerne Summer Festival in 2022. 

Recent and upcoming concerto highlights include debuts with The Royal Danish Opera, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and Mannheim Chamber Orchestra. Further orchestral engagements to date include City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, Orchestre National d’Ile de France, Britten Sinfonia and play/​directing Mozart K.271 with Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, working with Dinis Sousa, Anu Tali, Paul Meyer, Case Scaglione and Natalia Ponomarchuk. 

Rushdie Momen’s recital highlights include performances atHamburg Elbphilharmonie, Lucerne Festival, Tonhalle Zurich, Wigmore Hall, Antwerp’s deSingel, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Leeds Piano Competition and, in the US, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Phillips Collection in Washington DC, New York’s 92Y, Carnegie Hall, Portland Piano and The Maestro Foundation in Santa Monica.  Her 24/25 recitals include Wigmore Hall, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Aldeburgh Festival, and the re-opening festival of the Frick Collection in New York.

Equally at home as a chamber musician, Rushdie Momen’s chamber partners include Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore, Joshua Bell, Midori, Angela Hewitt, Steven Isserlis, Timothy Ridout and Zlatomir Fung, with festival performances including Rheingau Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Oeiras International Piano Festival, Chamonix Vallée Classics, Hindsgavl, Chipping Campden, Trasimeno Festival, the new Casals Forum at Kronberg, and IMS Prussia Cove.

Rushdie Momen’s latest release Reformation (Hyperion, 2024) presents the works of William Byrd, John Bull, Orlando Gibbons and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, performed on the modern piano. The album was described in The Times’ selection of the best releases of 2024 as “a triumph”, as “quietly beguiling” (The Guardian) , “performed with thrilling exuberance and subtlety” (The Spectator), topped the Classical Charts in July 2024 and was chosen as a Classic FM Discovery of the Week.  

Her debut solo recording, Variations, was released in October 2019 by SOMM Recordings, featuring works by Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms, and Mendelssohn. Mishka Rushdie Momen was The Times Arts critics’ chosen nominee in the field of classical music for their 2021 Breakthrough Award, given by Sky Arts and The South Bank Show, who profiled her for an episode of the programme broadcast in July 2021  

Mishka Rushdie Momen studied with Joan Havill and Imogen Cooper at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She also studied periodically with Richard Goode, and at the Kronberg Academy with Sir András Schiff, who has presented her in recital and orchestral dates across the USA and Europe. Mishka Rushdie Momen’s studies at the Kronberg Academy were generously funded by the Henle Foundation.

 Reformation : A new album on hyperion

Available on all streaming platforms, for download, or as a CD