Esfahani received his first guidance on the piano from his father before exploring an interest in the harpsichord as a teenager.
He studied musicology and history at Stanford University, where he took his first harpsichord lessons with Elaine Thornburgh[1] and was mentored by George Houle. He continued his harpsichord studies in Boston with Peter Watchorn, before completing his studies under Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková.[2]
As a leading harpsichordist, Esfahani's programming and work in commissioning new compositions has drawn the attention of critics and audiences across Europe, Asia, and North America. He was the first harpsichordist to be a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist (2008–2010), and to be honoured by an award from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust (2009).[3] He has also been a nominee for Gramophone Classical Music Awards Artist of the Year (2014, 2015, and 2017).
Performances include his Carnegie Hall debut in spring of 2018, recitals at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Thüringer Bachwochen with violinist Liza Ferschtman, concertos with the Kammerakademie Potsdam, and the continuation of a multi-year project of the complete keyboard works of J.S. Bach for Wigmore Hall,[7] with whom he has enjoyed an association since he made his debut there.
Following three years as artist-in-residence at New College, Oxford, he continues his academic associations as an honorary member at Keble College, Oxford, where he serves as patron of the Keble Early Music Festival. Esfahani also became professor of harpsichord at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama in the spring of 2015.[8] He can be frequently heard as a commentator on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 and as a host for such programs as Record Review, Building a Library, and Sunday Feature. For the latter programme he is currently at work on his third radio documentary following two programmes on such subjects as the history of African-American composers in the classical sphere.
Esfahani made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2009 as a concerto soloist with The English Concert. Later in 2009, he made his debut at The Proms in 3 concerts that featured New Generation Artists. In July 2011, Esfahani gave the first solo harpsichord recital in the history of The Proms, at Cadogan Hall. He returned to The Proms in July 2012, leading the Academy of Ancient Music in his own arrangement of JS Bach's The Art of Fugue.[9][10] Outside of the UK, his New York debut was at the Frick Collection in March 2012.[11]
Esfahani recorded Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Württemberg Sonatas for Hyperion Records,[12] and the recording won a 2014 Gramophone Award in the Baroque Instrumental category.[13] The same recording won him the BBC Music Magazine Award's 'Best Newcomer' award the following year. 2014 also saw Hyperion release his two-disc set of the complete harpsichord works of Jean-Philippe Rameau.[14] In 2014, Esfahani signed a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon (DG),[15] and his first DG recording, 'Time Present and Time Past', was released in 2015.[16]
During a 2016 performance of Steve Reich's Piano Phase at the Kölner Philharmonie, some audience members booed, clapped, whistled and shouted 'speak German'. When different factions in the audience yelled each other down, Esfahani stopped the performance and Concerto Köln and instead played a concerto by C. P. E. Bach. Some members of the audience apologised for the incident after the concert.[17]
On February 11, 2021, Mahan's collaborative album with Danish recorder player Michala Petri and German viola da gamba player Hille Perl, "Bach: 6 Flute Sonatas," won the Danish Music Award P2 Prize for Best Classical Album.[18]
Born in Tehran in 1984 and raised in the United States, he lived in Milan and then London for several years before taking up residence in Prague. He is gay and Presbyterian.[19] He became a naturalized Czech citizen in 2023.[20]
