At the age of ten, he won first prize at the Steinway Competition in Hamburg and made his formal debut the following year in his home town of Hannover (Germany) with a piano concerto by Mozart. As a graduate of the Berlin University of the Arts, he studied with Hans Leygraf and Alfred Brendel, among others.

A top prize winner at the Busoni Competition (Italy) and Maria Canals Competition (Spain), he received special honors and awards for his interpretations of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and Olivier Messiaen.

Jan Jiracek von Arnim was one of the winners of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (USA), which marked the beginning of his international career. Jan Jiracek von Arnim has since performed throughout Europe, including recitals at the Herkulessaal Munich, the Philharmonie Berlin, Salle Cortot Paris, Palau de la musica Barcelona, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Konzerthaus Vienna, the Musikverein Vienna, the Musikhalle Hamburg and the Gewandhaus Leipzig, as well as with orchestras such as the Berlin and St. Petersburg Philharmonics Orchestras, the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Northern Sinfonia of England.

Jan Jiracek von Arnim has been featured on several European radio and television stations, including ZDF, BBC, SFB Berlin, Deutschlandradio, Radio Hilversum, Radio Stockholm, and Radio France, as well as on NDR as a soloist with the NDR Symphony Orchestra.

In 2001, he was appointed Professor of Piano Performance at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria, making him the youngest tenured professor in the history of this university.

His students are first prize winners of major international piano competitions.

Jan Jiracek von Arnim is currently a guest professor at the Elisabeth University of Music in Hiroshima (Japan) and at the China Conservatory in Beijing. He was a visiting professor at the Yale School of Music in 2022 – 2023.

He regularly gives masterclasses in North America, Asia and Europe.

From 2017 – 2023, as successor to the legendary pianist Wilhelm Kempff, he taught the annual “Beethovenkurs” at the “Casa Orfeo” in Positano, Italy, where selected international piano talents are taught in the German and Austrian tradition of Beethoven interpretation.

Upcoming projects include performances and teaching activities at the 2024 Summer Academy of the Mozarteum Salzburg, the 2024 Chopin Festival in Duszniki, Poland, the 2024 Tianjin Juilliard Piano Festival in China, the 2024 International Piano Festival in Hangzhou, China, as well as several masterclasses in Japan.

Mr. Jiracek von Arnim is frequently invited as a juror to international piano competitions, e.g. the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan, the Busoni International Piano Competition in Italy, the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition for young musicians, the Shenzhen International Piano Competition, and in 2024, the Montréal International Piano Competition and the China International Music Competition in Beijing.

Since 2011, he is the Artistic Director and Chairman of the International Beethoven Piano Competition Vienna, one of the most prestigious piano competitions in the world.

His biography on Franz Liszt (Residenz Verlag, Austria) was described by the renowned newspaper DIE PRESSE, Austria, as “the very best Liszt biography”.

Jan Jiracek von Arnim is a scholarship holder of renowned foundations such as the “Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes”. In 2020, he was named a “Paul Harris Fellow” of Rotary Foundation. He is also an honorary citizen of Fredericksburg, Texas (USA).