An avid proponent of his fellow countryman John Field, he has recorded most of the composer's major works including the complete concertos, sonatas and nocturnes.
In 2021, O'Conor released the complete Beethoven cello and piano sonatas with cellist Ailbhe McDonagh on the Steinway label.
He has been invited to serve on the juries of many international piano competitions, including those in Leeds, Moscow (Tchaikovsky), Vienna (Beethoven), Warsaw (Chopin), Tel Aviv (Rubinstein), Beijing, Shanghai, Munich, Bolzano (Busoni), Cologne, Vevey (Clara Haskil), Cleveland (Cleveland International Piano Competition), Salt Lake City (Gina Bachauer), Sydney, Pretoria, London, College Park (William Kapell), Valencia (Jose Iturbi) and Seoul.
holds the position of professor of piano and 'distinguished visiting artist' at Shenandoah Conservatory (near Washington, D.C.), and retired as director of the Royal Irish Academy of Music in September 2010.
[citation needed] He gives masterclasses and lectures in many of the places he performs, as well as in many of the major music institutions, including the Juilliard and Manhattan Schools in New York, Harvard, Yale, Temple, Rutgers, Indiana and Seattle Universities,[6] the Hamamatsu Piano Academy in Japan, the National University of the Arts in Korea, the Australian National Academy and the Sydney Conservatorium in Australia and the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music in London.