Mahan Esfahani has made it his life’s work to bring the harpsichord to the concert mainstream, and to that end his creative programming and work in commissioning new music have drawn the attention of critics and audiences alike. He was the first and only harpsichordist to be a BBC New Generation Artist (2008–2010), a Borletti-Buitoni prizewinner (2009), and a nominee for Gramophone Artist of the Year (2014, 2015 and 2017). His commissioning work includes new solo and concertante works from Elena Kats-Chernin, Daniel Kidane, Miroslav Srnka, Anahita Abbasi, Bent Sørensen, George Lewis and others.

His work for the harpsichord has resulted in recitals in most of the major series and halls, amongst them London’s Wigmore Hall and Barbican Centre, Oji Hall in Tokyo, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, Shanghai Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall in New York, Melbourne Recital Centre, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Berliner Konzerthaus, Zürich Tonhalle, Wiener Konzerthaus, 92nd St Y, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Kölner Philharmonie, Edinburgh International Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Madrid’s Fundación Juan March, Bergen International Festival, Al Bustan Festival, Jerusalem Arts Festival, and the Leipzig Bach Festival, and concerto appearances with the Chicago Symphony, BBC Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, Czech Radio Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra, Malta Philharmonic, Aarhus Symphony, Hamburg Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Kammerakademie Potsdam and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

His richly varied discography—from C P E Bach’s ‘Württemberg’ sonatas and the complete keyboard works of Rameau to works by Ligeti and Steve Reich—has won him a Gramophone Award (2014) and several nominations, two BBC Music Magazine Awards (2015 and 2017), and a Diapason d’Or.

Mahan Esfahani studied musicology and history at Stanford University where he first came into contact with the harpsichord in the class of Elaine Thornburgh, before intensive private studies with Peter Watchorn in Boston and completing his formation under the celebrated Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková.