Since winning first prize at both the 1983 Pozzoli and 1984 Paloma O’Shea piano competitions in Italy and Spain, Hugh Tinney has performed in more than 30 countries throughout Europe, the USA, Latin America and the Far East. Festival engagements have taken him across the globe and he has broadcast in more than 15 countries.

A prize in the 1987 Leeds Piano Competition earned him a busy career in Great Britain performing with many major orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Royal Liverpool, Royal Scottish and BBC National of Wales. He has made a major contribution to Irish concert life for over 30 years, including multiple solo recital series (”Chopin Plus” and “Schubert & Beethoven” at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in the 1990s, and “European Piano Masterworks” at the National Concert Hall, Dublin in 2011), chamber series as curator and performer (at the Royal Dublin Society in 2008, and “European Masterworks” at the National Concert Hall in 2013) and regular concertos with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra from 1978 to the present. He has collaborated with the Borodin, Tokyo, RTÉ Vanbrugh, Vogler and Con Tempo Quartets, Ensemble Wien, Steven Isserlis, Catherine Leonard, the Chieftains and the late Bernadette Greevy. In 2012 and 2013, he toured China with the Academy Chamber Ensemble. He has recorded solo, chamber and concerto repertoire for Decca, Naxos, RTÉ lyric fm and several other CD labels.

From 2000 to 2006 Hugh Tinney was Artistic Director of the Music in Great Irish Houses festival. He has taught at the Royal Irish Academy of Music since 1995 and has been a jury member at several international piano competitions. He was awarded a two-year bursary in 2006 by the Arts Council of Ireland to work on contemporary music, and he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music by the National University of Ireland in 2007.