Full Circle Since the early 1980s, Melvyn Tan has been a leading light in the revival of the fortepiano and a principal exponent of Classical and early Romantic keyboard music. More recently, his career has turned full circle with his performances of more contemporary music at the modern piano. In this exclusive interview with MusicTeachers.co.uk, he talks about his life as one of Britain's leading concert pianists.

It was more by accident than by design that Melvyn Tan started to learn the piano. As a very small boy he would accompany his sister to her lessons and, although not taught formally, he would copy her pieces by ear. 'My parents noticed that I had some ability, so I began also to have lessons. However, it wasn't until there was a possibility that I would go to the Menuhin School that it dawned on them that music might be quite a serious proposition as a career.' His chance came after a family friend, Pat Wood, who worked for Qantas, informed Melvyn's parents of the existence of a school for musically-gifted children in Surrey. 'To begin with, they weren't that keen on the idea, but nevertheless, we made a tape, sent it off and thought nothing more about it. However, a couple of months later we received a letter from the school informing us that my application had been successful.' Funding was another problem since the Menuhin School offer no scholarships. Pat Wood came to the rescue and, using contacts, arranged for financial help: 'She was an air hostess, but mostly worked with first class passengers, where she mainly dealt with businessmen and directors of companies. When she spotted anyone who she thought might be vaguely interested in me, she brought out some tapes I had made and told my story. Ultimately, one of them arranged to provide my tuition fees in full.'

Melvyn found that the move to England was an excellent opportunity to further his studies: 'Moving alone to England might have proved hard to some twelve year olds, but in a way, I quite liked it. Until then, I'd had quite a protected upbringing, but I felt that the time was right to move away from all that - I didn't feel in the slightest bit homesick. The spirit of the school was very competitive, but constructively so: there was some rivalry, but that was generally amongst the staff rather than the pupils. There were several regular teachers, including Barbara Kerslake and a wonderful French teacher of about eighty, Marcel Ciampi, who had been a pupil of both Claude Debussy and Vincent D'Indy. But there were other teachers as well, such as Nadia Boulanger, who usually turned up once a term. That could be quite confusing to younger pupils, since often we were given conflicting advice. One felt that some of the regular teachers were very frustrated at never having quite made it as performers, and they took that out on their pupils.'

After the Menuhin School, Melvyn became a student of Angus Morrison at the Royal College of Music in London. At that time, all students were required to take a second study, but being unable to take conducting as his option, began harpsichord lessons instead, at first with Millicent Silver, where he gained his first experiences in playing early keyboard instruments, and later with Ruth Dyson. In his third year, after a suggestion from a friend, he began to read about, and experiment on, the fortepiano. 'College had no fortepiano, but there were a few dotted around London on which I could practise. Eventually, however, I decided to take the plunge, sell my modern piano and order a copy of a fortepiano for myself.' Knowing that he couldn't do everything, Melvyn also made the brave decision to give up the modern piano altogether. 'It was a hard decision since there was so little work available for fortepianists. In fact, for many years there was nothing; I played in a trio and did the occasional recital, but that was it really. Instead, I had to rely on teaching and playing harpsichord continuo, which although enjoyable, was not really what I needed as a soloist.' Gradually, however, his career took off with more and more work coming his way.