“He has a lot to say: Sometimes he is a subtle poet, sometimes a passionate speaker, sometimes he asks questions, sometimes he chats charmingly.”
-Westdeutsche Zeitung
“There was a poet sitting at the piano. An intelligently chiselled Romantic who can also pull out pranks.”
-Die Rheinpfalz
Once described as a “stubborn Bolshevik”, at other times as a poet, Arash Rokni has spent his life playing keys and deciphering black dots on paper.
An important part of his work is devoted to unusual programming and rarely performed repertoire. He is particularly drawn to Baroque and 18th-century music, historical keyboard instruments, and the Russian avant-garde. Moving naturally between modern piano, fortepiano and harpsichord, he creates programs in which familiar works sit alongside pieces that, for reasons difficult to understand, are almost never played.
A Second Prize and Audience Prize winner at the 21st International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition Leipzig, Rokni has performed across Europe as well as in Iran and Armenia. His appearances include the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Robert Schumann Saal Düsseldorf, NDR Sendesaal Hannover and Perth Concert Hall. His performances have been broadcast by WDR, MDR, NDR, Radio France, BBC Radio 3 and Catalunya Música.
Highlights of 2026 include a tour with Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto and the Schleswig-Holstein Orchestra, performances of Bach’s concertos for three and four harpsichords, appearances at the Lammermuir Festival and Perth Concert Hall, his debut at the Valletta Early Music Festival in Malta, his Bosnian debut, and concerts and masterclasses as part of his debut in Salamanca.
Rokni has also appeared at festivals including the Valletta Baroque Festival, Lammermuir Festival, Festival Pau Casals, Encuentro de Música de Santander, Chiemgauer Musikfrühling and Tara Festival Brussels amongst others.
Born in Tehran, Rokni first came into contact with music through his mother’s attempts to learn the setar and his father’s enthusiasm for Western classical music. Before eventually deciding on the piano, however, he had already tried out several other careers: conductor – mostly standing in for Karajan in front of the CD player – film composer for the glorious school theatre productions of his youth, and poet, probably as a side effect of discovering coffee at an early age!
He studied with Markus Tomas at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig and Claudio Martínez Mehner at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. Further important influences include Nina Tichman, Anthony Spiri, Andreas Staier, Ferenc Rados, Rita Wagner, Andreas Kemenes and Robert Levin.
As a chamber musician, Rokni has shared the stage with Miklós Perényi, Bernarda Fink, Antje Weithaas, Peter Nagy, Jonathan Brown and Erika Wise. He has also been a member of Trio Saye and the M.A.D Ensemble Basel.
Alongside music, literature and film are among his major interests. He writes short stories and has made the short films “An Absent Presence” and “Mittwoch”.
Rokni is currently Professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He was previously Professor at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp and the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, and has also taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln.