Joanna MacGregor teaches Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur L'Enfant-Jésus

Joanna MacGregor gives a masterclass on one of the most famous solo piano works in the contemporary repertoire.

During her career, Joanna MacGregor has asserted herself as one of the world's most wide-ranging and innovative musicians. Playing the piano in more than seventy countries with world renowned conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Valery Gergiev and Sir Simon Rattle, she did not want to restrain herself to one single repertoire.

Such collaborations have led her to play in such countries as South Africa, where she toured with the legendary jazz pianist Moses Molelekwa. More recently, she worked with Brian Eno on a contemporary music project. Her open-mindedness and modernity have made her a musician greatly influencing today's music.

Currently Head of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music, Joanna MacGregor, teaches in this masterclass one of Olivier Messiaen's famous works, Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus. Composed in 1944, this score is a true meditation on the Christ's childhood, using themes such as God, love or joy: "More than in any of my works, I have tried to find a mystical way to express varied, powerful and sweet love, but sometimes also brutal, with multicoloured laws"

The Masterclass Media Foundation Archives offer to students and music lovers around the world filmed masterclasses, given by the best talents, on the greatest works of the classical repertoire. Their primary purpose is to provide a valuable educational resource in order to perpetuate passion and knowledge from one generation to another.