Professor Sharkey has been Principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland – currently ranked 6th in the world for performing arts education – since September 2014. A pianist and composer, he was previously Director of Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute and Dean of the Cleveland Institute of Music. 

A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music (the conservatory’s first double major in piano and composition), Yale and Cambridge, Jeff’ spent the first 13 years of his career in the UK, as Director of Music at the Purcell School, then Head of Academic Music at Wells Cathedral School. He has also performed, recorded and toured extensively in Europe and the USA with the Pirasti Piano Trio, and is in demand as a coach, regularly giving masterclasses.