Jan Gottlieb Jiracek von Arnim was appointed Professor of Piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw) in 2001, becoming the youngest tenured professor in the institution's history.
His students have won top prizes at many of the world's most prestigious piano competitions, including first prizes at the Géza Anda Competition (Switzerland, 2021), the Unisa International Piano Competition (South Africa, 2020), the Top of the World Competition (Norway, 2019), the Tucumán International Piano Competition (Argentina, 2019), and the Maria Canals Barcelona International Piano Competition (2018).
He currently serves as Guest Professor at the Elisabeth University of Music in Hiroshima and Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo, Japan. From 2022 to 2023, he held a visiting professorship at the Yale School of Music.
A sought-after master class teacher, he gives classes regularly throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. Recent engagements have taken him to the Mendelssohn Academy Leipzig, the Academy of Music in Katowice, PTNA and JPTA Japan, the Hamamatsu International Piano Academy, Seoul National University, the China Conservatory Beijing, and the Prof. Hlinka Piano Academy Bergen — where he taught alongside Leif Ove Andsnes and Richard Goode on Beethoven's Piano Sonatas.
From 2017 to 2023, he carried on the legacy of the legendary pianist Wilhelm Kempff as his successor at the annual "Beethovenkurs" at Casa Orfeo in Positano, Italy, guiding selected international talents in the German and Austrian traditions of Beethoven interpretation.
Recent highlights include teaching and performing at the 2025 Summer Academy of the Mozarteum Salzburg, the 2025 PianoTexas Academy & Festival (USA), the 2025 Eppan Academy (Italy), the 2024 Chopin Festival in Duszniki (Poland), the 2024 Tianjin Juilliard Piano Festival, and the 2024 International Piano Festival in Hangzhou, as well as a series of master classes across Japan.
Jiracek von Arnim is regularly invited to serve on the juries of leading international piano competitions, among them the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (Japan), the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition (Italy), the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition for Young Musicians, the Shenzhen International Piano Competition, the Montréal International Music Competition, and the China International Music Competition in Beijing.
Since 2011, he has served as Artistic Director and Chairman of the International Beethoven Piano Competition Vienna, one of the most prestigious piano competitions in the world.
Selected former and current students:
Alexey Sychev
First Prize Winner of the 8th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition Weimar-Bayreuth
Laureate of more than 30 international piano competitions
Junna Iwasaki
Chanel Pygmalion Days Artist and one of the most promising young pianists in Japan.
Evgeny Konnov
First Prize Winner of the 2018 “Maria Canals Barcelona International Music Competition” and the 2020 “14th Unisa International Piano Competition” in Pretoria (South Africa). Many more 1st prizes at international piano competitions.
Anton Gerstenberg
First Prize Winner of the “Concours Géza Anda” 2021 (Switzerland)
Alexander Panfilov
First Prize Winner at the 2019 Top of the World International Piano Competition, First Prize Winner at the Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition, First Prize Winner at the Jaen International Piano Competition, First Prize Winner at the Hastings Piano Concerto International Competition, as well as other multiple awards winner.
Florian Feilmair
First Prize Winner “gradus ad Parnassum” (Austria), “Neue Sterne” (Germany), winner of “Klassikpreis.Österreich”