Mahan Esfahani was born in 1984 in Tehran and later became a naturalized Czech citizen in 2023. He studied harpsichord at Stanford University with Elaine Thornburgh and George Houle, continued training in Boston with Peter Watchorn, and completed further studies with the noted Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková. He became the first harpsichordist to be a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist (2008–2010) and made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2009.

Esfahani gave the first solo harpsichord recital in the history of the BBC Proms in 2011 and has since become one of the instrument’s leading international advocates, performing at Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and Lincoln Center. He has won multiple Gramophone Award nominations, a 2014 Gramophone Award for C.P.E. Bach’s Württemberg Sonatas, and the Danish Music Award P2 Prize for Best Classical Album (2021); he has also taught as professor of harpsichord at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama since 2015.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahan_Esfahani