Biographical Info

Kiana Shafiei is an accomplished pianist, scholar and music teacher based in Manchester, UK. Born in Tehran, after graduating from Tehran University, College of Music and Drama with First Class Honours she entered the Royal College of Music in London where she studied piano with John Byrne. Upon her graduation with a Master of Performance degree Kiana undertook a PhD in Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music under the supervision of Dr David Horne, Dr Stephen Savage and Dr Adam Fairhall.

” Kiana is an extraordinary pianist. Her exceptional
musicality and command of nuance is informed by an
inquiring, critical mind.
– Dr Adam Fairhall

During her doctoral studies Kiana worked as a Teaching Assistant and as Editorial Assistant for the Music Performance Research journal as well as taking on the membership of the RNCM Research Committee and Ethics Committee in addition to the role of RNCM Research Students Representative. In 2015 she received the professional recognition of Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Kiana is currently working at Junior RNCM, Chetham’s School of Music and Lancashire Music Service.

Kiana is a proponent, promoter and performer of new and lesser-known repertoire, an interest that leads her to organise and co-organise projects that successfully receive support from various funding bodies in the UK and the European Union.
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In her most recent project Kiana collaborated with the RNCM orchestra to give the first UK performance of concerto for piano and orchestra by the Juilliard Faculty, Behzad Ranjbaran. This project was generously funded by the Higher Education Council for England. Kiana also gave the first UK performance of Ranjbaran’s solo piano piece Nocturne: A Night in a Persian Garden, during her recital tour across the United Kingdom in spring and summer 2015.
In another project Kiana performed and recorded three piano concertos by composer Andre Hossein, which was funded by the research departments of the Royal Northern College of Music and Manchester Metropolitan University. As part of the project Kiana collaborated with a composer in creating the full score from the parts for concerto number one, which was last performed more than fifty years ago.

As the co-organiser of the Nava Music Festival, held at the Royal College of Music in London, Kiana managed two days of presentations, keynote speeches, composition workshops and concerts at the Royal College of Music as well as Forge Music and Arts venue in London.