Jamaican-born pianist John McArthur’s music engages our interwoven relationship with time, transformation, and the profound range of experience in a life.
John McArthur began studying piano at age eight in the United States with the late Belgian pianist Suzanne Shader, a student of Dr. Clarence Adler and Eduard van Remoortel. He went on to attend New York University and the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Ernest Ulmer, Joseph Villa, and Dalmo Carra.
Dr. McArthur was recognized for his artistry throughout his student years. As a Master Class participant, he received praise from pianists such as Daniel Pollack, Constance Keene, Earl Wild, and John Browning.
Under the tutelage of the eminent American virtuoso Earl Wild, McArthur earned his doctorate in performance at Manhattan School of Music.
Fifteen years of active teaching and concertizing followed, marked by enthusiastically received performances across the US and in Venezuela, France, Spain, South Korea, and Japan.
His playing has been critically noted for both its great “grace and sensitivity”(KIOS, Omaha, Nebraska) and its place “on thundering virtuoso turf” (THE MUSE, London, England). McArthur’s performances have been hailed as much for their approachability as their virtuosity, coupling a commanding sound with an elemental connection to story.
Equally at home on the stage and teaching studio, McArthur's gift for interpretation and his dedication to amplifying universal throughlines in music have drawn both students and audiences to more deeply explore landmarks and lesser-known gems of classical piano repertoire.
McArthur's deep interest in cross-disciplinary artistic collaboration led to his innovative production of a 1996 multimedia performance of Maurice Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit. In his staging of the work, each movement of the piece was augmented with an original oil canvas by American artist James Jones, and readings of the poems by Aloysius Bertrand that had inspired Ravel’s music.
In 1999, John McArthur released his solo album HIDDEN which quickly rose to become the No. 2 best selling Classical Emerging Artist record on Amazon. It was celebrated as “so beautiful that one simply wants to tell friends to get a copy right quick.” (Brattleboro Reformer, Brattleboro, Vermont)
Soon after the release of HIDDEN, McArthur permanently relocated to North Carolina to be the primary caregiver for his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. This became the start of a twenty-year journey that slowed, then completely paused, his public music-making.
Now, 25 years after its debut, the record has now been re-released as The HIDDEN Project.
Ten original album tracks have been remixed and remastered, and are accompanied by three more recent recordings. The project also includes three short films, including HOMAGE which documents McArthur’s gradual return to the piano through a transformative relationship with one key piece of music from his earlier musical life.