It is long overdue that we pay tribute to pianist, composer, musicologist, and Scriabinist Jonathan Powell, who passed away suddenly on December 27th last year. Powell studied with Denis Matthews and later with Sulamita Aronovsky, and his dissertation during his years as a student at the University of Cambridge explored the influence of Scriabin on Russian composers. He would later write the entry on Scriabin for the Grove Dictionary of Music. 

Stories abound around Powell—wild student days at Cambridge, sightreading the Scriabin Sonatas late at night at a party, getting full marks in the University’s famously difficult Aural exam—but what always comes across is the immense talent he possessed as both pianist and composer, as well as a generosity of spirit and passion for friendship. 

He dedicated his musical life to the lesser-known repertoire of Eastern Europe, as well as contemporary music. His pianism, ear, and sheer intensity in performance were second to none. He was one of only a small handful of pianists to perform the notoriously complex music of Kaikhosru Sorabji. He gave performances of the four-hour-long Opus Clavicumbalisticum and recorded the composer’s seven-hour Sequentia cylica.

He lived in Poland, in the Carpathian mountains with his wife, Irena, and their two sons; he will be greatly missed.