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Four full days of piano concerts and events in the beautiful and historic town of Ludlow in Shropshire

Celebrity impressionist, comedian and actor turned pianist Alistair McGowan has launched the Ludlow Piano Festival, which takes place between 24 and 28 May. This new music festival features a fabulous line-up of pianists: Lucy Parham, Charles Owen, Anne Lovett, Viv McLean, Paul Roberts, Anthony Hewitt, Benjamin Frith, Christina McMaster, Joanna McGregor and James Lisney, playing a mixture of pieces by Chopin, Gershwin, Grieg, Rachmaninov, Debussy, Mompou, Liszt, Scriabin, Satie, and Ravel (as well as original works), all with an emphasis on beauty and romance, as befits the lovely setting for this festival. In addition, comedian, musician and conductor, Rainer Hersch will be performing his hilarious and heart-warming tribute to his idol, Victor Borge. And on Saturday 26 May, remarkable blind pianist Rachel Starrit will give a late-night candlelit concert, performing new works by three young composers and her own improvisations.

As well as the concerts there will be opportunities for invited students and keen amateur pianists to participate in masterclasses with Paul Roberts and James Lisney, plus insights into dealing with live performance in a special event hosted by Radio 3’s Katie Derham.

I caught up with Alistair McGowan to ask him more about this Festival and the chosen setting for it

What was your motivation for organising the Ludlow Piano Festival?

We have two fabulous concert venues in the town each with a top-quality concert grand pianos. Having performed my own show (in which I cheekily play 15 short piano pieces by Debussy, Satie, Glass, Gershwin, Cyril Scott et al and intersperse them with light-hearted biographical information and a smattering of crowbarred impressions) to great acclaim at both venues, I thought it would be wonderful to get all the proper classical pianists I know and admire to play these excellent pianos too and within a few days of each other so that the town rings with the sound of the piano.

Why Ludlow?

Apart from the great pianos and venues, Ludlow is a beautiful town which I’m now very pleased to call home. Set amid the rolling, ‘blue-remembered’ Shropshire Hills, I thought it would be a perfect base for a festival of this sort where people could come from all over the country (indeed, all over the world) and sample the great food on offer, the history of the town with its stunning architecture, and enjoy the freshness of the English/almost Welsh countryside in between the many top-quality events.

What excites you about the performers and programmes at the Festival?

Every one of the soloists has thrilled me with their playing since I came (late in life!) to appreciate the piano repertoire. They are artists whose recordings have inspired me, soothed me, moved me and amazed me. I have seen nearly all of them live too and am just in awe of what they do. I’m delighted that they have agreed to largely play shorter pieces. I hope that will keep our audience on their toes and introduce them to a lot of new pieces and new composers (some modern, some young, and some local composers too!) rather than just the regular names.

What do you hope audiences will take from the Festival?

I hope they will, like me, be moved and inspired and want to hear more, learn more and play more. Also, knowing that we’d attract some very-skilled piano enthusiasts, I was keen to secure some street pianos and to have the three pub pianos in the town tuned and accessible so that visitors (and the resting soloists!) can play music so that anyone can hear it as they eat, drink and go about their daily business.

This promises to be a glorious celebration of the piano, in a beautiful location – a must-go Festival for all pianophiles and music lovers.

Find out more / book tickets

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Pianists and co-Artistic Directors Katya Apekisheva and Charles Owen reveal another exquisite line-up for the seventh London Piano Festival (LPF) which returns to Kings Place from 6-9 October 2022. Four days of classical and jazz piano performances will see Festival debuts from star soloist Tamara Stefanovich, jazz sensation Vijay Iyer and rising star Dominic Degavino, in addition to Dame Imogen Cooper who has been a Patron of the London Piano Festival since its launch in 2016. Returning artists include Noriko Ogawa and Paul Roberts, as well as the Festival’s Artistic Directors Katya Apekisheva and Charles Owen. Under 30s tickets are available for all concerts at a reduced price of £8.50. The Festival is delighted to be working with International Piano magazine as media partner for the seventh year running.

Co-Artistic Directors Katya Apekisheva and Charles Owen commented, “We are delighted to present the seventh edition of exciting piano-themed concerts featuring an exceptional line-up of pianists in the welcoming setting of Kings Place. The recent return to unrestricted live music-making, complete with extra appreciative audiences has been energising for performers around the world. This year there will be a particular focus on the joys of musical collaboration between pianist friends, a sharing and exchange of ideas. Nothing can ever quite reproduce the visceral impact of a live event, the sheer thrill of experiencing music in real time.”

Visionary pianist Tamara Stefanovich opens this year’s Festival with a programme exploring form and freedom, beginning with Bach’s Aria variata (BWV 989) interweaving the birdsong-inspired pieces of Messiaen and Rameau, and ending with Messaien’s mesmerising Cantéyodjayâ [6 Oct].Piano duets have been performed at the London Piano Festival every year since it launched in 2016, helping to introduce audiences to new works whilst also celebrating rarely-performed masterpieces. This year Dame Imogen Cooper is joined by Katya Apekisheva, Charles Owen and Dominic Degavino, pianists who have all benefitted from her skill and unique insights through masterclasses and teaching sessions over the years, for an evening of piano duets. The four pianists will take to the stage in different pairings to perform Schubert’s piano duets whilst recreating the atmosphere of an intimate social gathering [7 Oct].Katya Apekisheva and Noriko Ogawa explore contrasting 20th-century preludes in their afternoon recital [8 Oct]. Apekisheva will perform Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes, a collection of short pieces in all twenty-four keys, taking the audience through a diverse assortment of moods across the complete set. By contrast, Ogawa will play Debussy’s 12 Préludes, Book I, an imaginative collection which doesn’t follow any strict harmonic template.Later that evening award-winning jazz pianist and composer Vijay Iyer will perform a solo improvised set [8 Oct]. Known for performing internationally with ensembles and his own trio, this special evening of solo jazz improvisation will be a rare treat for London audiences.To celebrate the launch of his new book, concert pianist and lecturer Paul Roberts returns to the Festival to present a lecture-recital with Charles Owen celebrating Liszt’s passionate response to the poetry of Francesco Petrarca [9 Oct]. Roberts’ new book – Reading Franz Liszt – explores the inspiration Liszt drew from the poetry of Francisco Petrarca (1304-74), revealing the link between two major artists born 500 years apart.The London Piano Festival was founded by pianists Katya Apekisheva and Charles Owen in 2016 and takes place every October at Kings Place, London. Previous visiting artists have included Alfred Brendel, Alexandra Dariescu, Julian Joseph, Gabriela Montero, Stephen Kovacevich, Jason Rebello and Kathryn Stott, amongst many others. The Festival has also commissioned a number of new works for two piano, working with composers including Sally Beamish, Jonathan Dove, Elena Langer and Nico Muhly.

Full details atwww.londonpianofestival.comAll concerts take place at Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG

www.kingsplace.co.uk

[Source: press release]

Vijay Iyer
Paul Roberts
Noriko Ogawa
Katy Apekisheva
Dame Imogen Cooper
Tamara Stefanovich Photo: Marco Borggreve
Charles Owen
Dominic Degavino

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Extensive learning and engagement activities take piano out of the concert hall and into communities 

Outstanding young scholars from Lang Lang International Music Foundation also perform

“Artistry of that kind is rare in pianists of any age; to find it in a 20-year-old is simply astounding.”
The Daily Telegraph

Following his win at the Leeds International Piano Competition in September 2018, 21-year-old pianist Eric Lu returns to ‘The Leeds’ for Leeds Piano Festival, with recitals in Leeds and London. World-renowned pianists Steven Osborne and Barry Douglas also perform recitals, with Osborne leading a masterclass with Young Scholars from the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, building on the ongoing relationship between the Foundation and The Leeds.

Eric-Lu-winner-of-the-Leeds-International-Piano-Competition-2018-performs-at-the-Finals-at-Leeds-Town-Hall-c-Simon-Wilkinson-Photography-e1537184338402

The Festival continues the much-enriched programme of events that surrounded the 2018 Competition, allowing audiences to engage with the piano and The Leeds beyond the triennial Competition. As part of The Leeds’ commitment to developing new and exciting ways of bringing the piano to as wide an audience as possible, the Festival – successfully inaugurated in 2018 – will again comprise many learning and engagement activities, including the return of the ‘Discover the Piano: Piano Fantasia’ on 28 March – The Leeds’ biggest primary school event to date, reaching more than 1,000 schoolchildren. The Young Scholars also participate in learning activities in primary schools and adult care settings in both Leeds and London – the latter once again in partnership with Wigmore Hall’s learning and participation programme – inspiring music lovers young and old with their prodigious talents.

Leeds Piano Festival recitals 

Eric Lu’s return to The Leeds is part of the revolutionary prize package at The Leeds last year, designed with career development in mind. The prize also included world-wide management with Askonas Holt, a release of his Leeds-winning performance on major label Warner Classics (released to much acclaim in November 2018), opening the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2018/19 season, mentoring with jury members and more. Lu performs Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 – a piece he performed in the Competition semi-finals and released as a single on Warner Classics following his win – as well as works by Mozart, Brahms and Handel.

Former Royal Philharmonic Society ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ Steven Osborne explores Beethoven’s final three piano sonatas. Osborne is a renowned interpreter of Beethoven’s music, not least from his critically-acclaimed recordings of the composer’s piano sonatas on the Hyperion label, and these recitals offer a rare opportunity to see him perform in an intimate setting.

Internationally-renowned pianist Barry Douglas pairs miniatures with more expansive works in both halves of his programme for the Festival, contrasting Tchaikovsky’s vignettes The Seasons with his Grande Sonata in G major, before pairing Rachmaninov’s Six Moments Musicaux with Schubert’s intense Sonata in A minor.

The Festival also showcases three Young Scholars from the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, developing the continuing relationship between the Foundation and the Leeds. Three exceptional young pianists, Aliya Alsafa, Jaspar Heymann and Shuheng Zhang – handpicked and mentored by Lang Lang, the Competition’s Global Ambassador –perform recitals at both Festival venues, as well as participate in a masterclass led by Steven Osborne at Leeds College of Music.

Speaking at the Finals of the 2018 Competition – where he also presented prizes and was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Leeds – Lang Lang stated: “I’m extremely proud of my association with the city of Leeds, and with the Piano Competition – which is doing so much to unite excellence and accessibility”.

Closing the Festival, celebrity pianist Alistair McGowan returns to The Leeds with Introduction to Classical Piano at Besbrode Pianos. An alumnus of the University of Leeds, McGowan previously performed at The Leeds during Piano + events at the 2018 Competition, and his 2017 recording The Piano Album reached Number One in the UK Classical Album Charts.

Learning and Engagement 

In addition to their recitals and masterclass, the Young Scholars participate in many external learning and engagement activities, following the success of similar events at last year’s Festival. As well as performing in the Piano Fantasia to over 1,000 primary schoolchildren, they also visit local primary schools in both Leeds and London, as well as adult care settings.

The University of Leeds, a principal partner of the Competition, hosts a ‘Steinway Experience’ on 30 March as part of Be Curious, the University’s research open day, where families can enjoy these wonderful instruments. Steinway & Sons, also a partner of The Leeds, has provided the pianos for the Competition since its beginnings in 1963.

Coinciding with Piano Day on 29 March, pop-up performances take place on the Leeds Piano Trail, in partnership with Leeds Business Improvement District (BID). These Besbrode pianos, decorated by local artists, were a popular feature of last year’s Competition and encouraged the public to play and experience the pianos at high-profile locations around Leeds city centre; most of the trail pianos stayed in place after the Competition due to the huge popularity of the initiative.

Adam Gatehouse, Artistic Director of the Leeds International Piano Competition, said: “After winning over both the jury and audiences at the 2018 Competition, we’re delighted to welcome Eric Lu back to The Leeds for the second annual Leeds Piano Festival. We’re thrilled too that Steven Osborne, Barry Douglas and the extraordinary Lang Lang Scholars will join him in both Leeds and London, allowing audiences to experience their remarkable talent and help us share in wonderful performances of great piano music. Deepening our roots in our communities by developing fun, diverse and inclusive events to enable more people to discover and fall in love with the piano is also crucial to our mission, and the Festival continues its inspiring work to attract ever-wider audiences.” 

Tickets for the Leeds recitals and the masterclass can be booked here, and the London recitals here.

 

Leedspiano.com

@leedspiano

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St John’s Smith Square announces OCCUPY THE PIANOS Festival 2018 
Friday 20 -Sunday 22 April 2018
Celebrating two themes: Protest and The Journey Within 

Including more than a dozen world premieres, a led meditation, a queer concert and Radulescu’s Icons in SJSS’s crypt (pianos laid on their sides with their action removed) 

St John’s Smith Square is delighted to announce its third full Occupy the Pianos festival curated by pianist and composer Rolf Hind. The numerous concerts from 20-22 April are studded with many freshly-written works and radical takes on music and concert-giving, with new and radical piano music at its core.

The two themes this year are Protest (from the feminist angle in Maxwell Davies to the words of prisoners in Rzewski, from a plea for compassion to animals to radical rethinking of music making from a queer angle) and The Journey Within. These themes don’t merely relate to the music chosen but the manner of presentation: so the second main day – The Journey Within – will gradually dissolve into audience participation with everyone ending up downstairs in the cafe together, by way of a concert conducted as a led meditation with Eliza McCarthy.

Rolf Hind says of this year’s festival:

St Johns’s Smith Square is only a stone’s throw from Parliament Square, site of protest and agitation for hundreds of years. In keeping with our name, this year’s programming considers politics and protest. At the same time – reflecting the beautiful, serene space in which we find ourselves in this church, the festival’s 2nd day will move towards spirituality and the journey within, offering new ways for the audience to encounter music and their experience of it.

There will be more than a dozen new works over the weekend, placing the focus on future directions for the piano, a focus also highlighted by the appearance of the extraordinary Magnetic Resonator piano in Rolf Hind’s Friday night recital. There has been a Call for Scores (Occupy the Pianos received over 100 new pieces in the past) and the weekend begins with a workshop on writing for the piano, with further pieces dropped into the weekend as surprises.

Increasing the sense of fluidity between events there will be two of Radulescu’s Icons housed in the crypt. These Icons are grand pianos laid on their sides which have had the action removed and are then played in unique ways.   At the end of the festival there will be a chance for members of the public to improvise on these instruments themselves.

Don’t miss the concert “On a Queer Day” on 21st April at 4pm, where several pieces will be introduced by an investigation of what it means to play Bach queerly and later that evening at 7.30pm there is Kagel’s Staatstheater, a surreal theatre piece, funny, disturbing, and politically engaged, which takes apart the whole concert hall experience, and doesn’t really put it back together again!

Also on the 20th there is a must-see performance of Peter Maxwell Davies’ extraordinary glimpse into the mind of a mad, wronged woman – uniquely in this case the role of Miss Donnithorne is shared by two of our most exciting vocalists, Elaine Mitchener and Loré Lixenberg.

Rolf Hind
Elaine Mitchener
Lore Lixenberg
George Barton
Eliza McCarthy

The musicians involved in Occupy the Pianos are hand-picked by Rolf Hind: creative, multi-faceted and collaborative.

As well as being wonderful players they are thoughtful and curious about repertoire, and willing to take part in different elements of the weekend which gives it a joyful, collegiate feel. In each festival new players are added to the mix, fascinating young players often at the beginning of their careers. Not necessarily the “prize-winners” but brilliant musicians with a distinctive edge and profile.

At the festival’s heart is an ever-growing team of brilliant musicians whose approach is outwardlooking, unconventional and curious. The collegiate communal spirit of that group has made Occupy the Pianos such an adventure. An adventure that continues…

– Rolf Hind

 

For more information & tickets please visit

www.sjss.org.uk/otp2018

Source: press release/ Jo Carpenter Music PR Consultancy

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Photo: Jean-Baptiste Millot

Who or what inspired you to take up the piano, and make it your career?

The power of music. the piano repertoire

Who or what were the most important influences on your musical life and career?

Certainly love!

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

A solo concert with virtuoso studies for the TV channel Mezzo.

Which performance/recordings are you most proud of?

A performance I did some months ago while I felt free.

Which particular works do you think you play best?

Romantic works

How do you make your repertoire choices from season to season?

I like doing a mix of new pieces and old pieces I’ve already played

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in and why?

London of course, because it’s the first time!

Favourite pieces to perform? Listen to?

Brahms trio opus 8

Who are your favourite musicians?

Radu Lupu, Gilels, Schnabel, Lipatti…

What is your most memorable concert experience?

I‘m very sensitive with the acoustic, and I must say that the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam is one of the most beautiful hall for the acoustics.

What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?

To be honest with the composer and yourself.

What are you working on at the moment?

Many programmes with Scriabin, Chopin, Saint-Saens, Brahms, Schubert and some contemporary composers

What is your present state of mind?

Amused
Geoffroy Couteau gives a recital of works by Scriabin, Saint-Saëns, Liszt and Chopin at the Institut français, South Kensington on Sunday 6 April, 5:30pm as part of It’s all About Piano!

www.geoffroycouteau.com

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Who or what inspired you to take up the piano, and make it your career?

I was born in a musical family and there were 3 pianos at home, my mother was a pianist…my choice was obvious!

Who or what were the most important influences on your musical life and career?

First my mother, she was my only teacher till the age of 9.Then my teachers at the Paris conservatory, Lucette Descaves, Louise Clavius Marius, Geneviève Joy, Pierre Pasquier, and above all Julius Katchen, whom I met when I was 16, more than a teacher, a mentor, an inspiration, I should also mention two great ladies…Marguerite Long and Nadia Boulanger.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

Always being at the top of my musical abilities and being able to pass through my emotions and my love for music…and enjoy life!

Which performance/recordings are you most proud of?

Performances are not to be remembered…each of them is a “once in a lifetime” experience, but out of my +\- 300 performances of the Ravel G Major Concerto, I do remember the one in London with Mariss Jansons…something special happened on that day…

Recordings…I still enjoy many of them because I always made a point not allow the release of a recording I was not happy with…but if I need to keep some on a desert island – the St Saens Piano concerti with Charles Dutoit, the Fauré Piano Quintets with the Ysaye quartet and the first CD with my wife, “Wedding cake”

Which particular works do you think you play best?

The French repertoire in general but almost anything I play, since I would never perform a work which I don’t enjoy or I am not convinced I can bring something personal in it.

How do you make your repertoire choices from season to season?

For the reasons I just mentioned…because I love the pieces I play and I can express myself with them.

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in and why?

Nearly all the concert halls in Japan…acoustics, design, installation, they arealways perfect…and filled with a fantastic audience.

Favourite pieces to perform? Listen to?

The French repertoire in general, with perhaps at the top, Ravel G Major Concerto and Debussy ‘La Mer’ (with my wife)
 To listen to…very different and more “eclectic” music…Opera…Jazz…never piano music!

Who are your favourite musicians?

Glenn Gould, Carlos Kleiber, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald…

What is your most memorable concert experience?

The creation of a new concerto for 2 pianos written for me and my wife by Australian composer Matthew Hindson, at the Sydney Opera House with Sydney symphony orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?

To be yourself, express something unique, think different, enjoy everything you do, and as Debussy said: “N’écoute que les conseils du vent qui passe…”

What are you working on at the moment?

Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’ in the 4 hands version.

Where would you like to be in 10 years’ time?

Traveling the world…in good health…

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

My life at the moment..traveling the world with my wife, playing music and using Apple devices…!

What is your most treasured possession?

My iPad

What do you enjoy doing most?

Living the way I live! (See previous question!)

What is your present state of mind?

Extremely happy…!

Pascal Rogé gives a masterclass at the Institut français, South Kensington on Saturday 5 April, 6pm followed by a recital of music for four hands with his wife, Ami Rogé on Sunday 6 April, 6:30pm as part of It’s All About Piano!