Ahead of this year’s London Piano Festival, an interview with artistic directors Katya Apekisheva and Charles Owen

The London Piano Festival is now in its eleventh year. How has your original vision for the Festival evolved since you founded it in 2016?

KA: Our festival is in its 11th year. One of the challenges for us is making each festival varied, interesting, creating something new/unusual each year, having some surprises in store. Since starting the festival in 2016 where our main events were piano recitals, we realised that we needed a greater variety of events. We introduced masterclasses, more spoken word events. Last year one of our highlights was an event with BBC journalist Steve Rosenberg, playing his improvisations and talking about his life in Russia today. This year we are introducing foyer concerts with young upcoming pianists. We want to keep our audience interested and always try to bring fresh ideas into each festival.

When you begin planning a new Festival, what comes first: particular artists, repertoire, a theme or simply music and musicians you feel audiences should hear?

KA: It’s a combination of all these things. It usually takes us a while to come up with the programme for each year. We start with talking about artists we want to invite, and interesting events that we can create. We don’t really plan to have themes as such, although 2027 is a Beethoven anniversary year and we definitely want to include his works in our programming . This year we really liked the idea of inviting George Benjamin to talk about his studies with Messiaen. It’s a unique opportunity for the audience to hear about Messiaen as a person/teacher as well as to hear his music.

This year’s programme ranges from Mozart, Chopin and Schubert to Messiaen, George Benjamin and jazz. What connects these apparently very different strands for you?

CO: The connections are simultaneously subtle and clear. The influence of Mozart upon Schubert’s youthful style then develops into the extraordinary originality of the latter’s visionary piano sonatas. Messiaen, one of the most original and spiritual voices of the twentieth century, links to George Benjamin’s music through harmonic, textural and personal connections. Piano music without Chopin’s profound insights into the possibilities of the instrument would be unthinkable. His influence on successive generations of piano composers can be sensed in the way that jazz pianists use patterns and the resonance of the harmonic series.

The Festival opens with Divisions & Visions, exploring the musical relationship between Olivier Messiaen and his former pupil George Benjamin. What particularly attracted you to this idea, and to placing it at the opening of the Festival?

CO: Katya and I have always admired Messiaen’s epic ‘Visions de l’Amen’, a work we were asked to learn for the 2018 Kings Place series, Time Unwrapped. This gripping two piano epic, composed during the darkest days of the Second World War, has a profound spiritual message and fantastic musical imagery. In performance the piece always has a sense of ‘occasion’ making it an ideal choice to open a piano festival.

I met George Benjamin earlier this year whilst performing in the inspirational Korean festival of Tongyeoung. Our conversation touched on his studies with Messiaen in Paris revealing fascinating insights into an extraordinary, formative time. To then discover that he had recently written a new piece entitled ‘Divisions’ was too much of a coincidence. The ideal companion piece for Messiaen.

Collaboration has always been an important feature of the London Piano Festival. What is it about playing with another pianist – whether four hands or at two pianos – that you find especially rewarding?

KA: Playing with other pianists is a very rewarding and interesting experience. Pianists don’t often play together, we are solitary creatures who spend a lot of time alone with a piano. I personally find learning about sound and different approaches to music very interesting. I love learning from my colleagues and it couldn’t get any closer, particularly when playing 4 hands repertoire. You literally feel each other’s breathing. So even though we have different personalities we have to play as one person which is a unique challenge.

This year’s Mozart Piano Gala brings together pianists at different stages of their careers. How important is it to you that the Festival creates this kind of meeting place between generations of musicians?

CO: The aspect of collaborating across generations through performing and rehearsing together is one of the most important, indeed essential aspects of the London Piano Festival. We’ve done similar projects on both two pianos and four hands throughout the last decade with always memorable results and warm audience response.

Alongside concerts, the programme includes a masterclass and a behind-the-scenes exploration of the concert grand. How important is giving audiences access to the process of music-making, as well as the finished performance?

CO: I always enjoy discovering more about the inner workings of any subject, how a painting is restored, an exhibition curated or a garden designed. With our masterclass from renowned pianist Kathryn Stott, the audience will be able to glimpse insights into musical and pianistic preparation ahead of performance.

As for Ulrich Gerhartz’s talk on the inner workings of Steinway pianos, this will be an unmissable occasion for all who have an interest in the mechanics, beauty and sheer magic involved in preparing the finest instruments.

You have consistently included jazz alongside classical repertoire. What do you feel artists such as Bill Laurance bring to a festival centred on the piano?

KA: We both love Jazz piano and from the first festival wanted to have jazz at every festival as an essential part of it. Jazz piano recitals bring a very different audience to the festival which is great. During the last ten years we had some exceptional pianists take part- Leszek Mozdzer, Julian Joseph, Gwilym Simcock to name a few. We are really excited to have Bill Laurance return to our festival after 5 years. He is the most exciting musician and the audience loves him! His concert is nearly sold out so get your tickets fast!

After eleven festivals and more than 50 classical and jazz pianists, what have you learnt about piano audiences – and has anything particularly surprised you?

CO: What has delighted us is the amazing thirst from audiences for piano music of all kinds. Their is limitless curiosity from music lovers who wish to experience the huge variety of piano repertoire played live. 

Surprises? Only the fire alarm interruption and audience  evacuation during the first half of Federico Colli‘s 2019 recital. He was unfazed and went on to deliver a blazing performance of Mussorgsky!

What would you each choose as your personal “don’t miss” moment of the 2026 Festival – and why?

KA: It’s very hard to pick one as we are both passionate about all the events!

For me it would be the Benjamin/Messiaen event because you get an opportunity to get an insight into Messiaen’s personal world as well as hearing his rarely performed masterpiece Visions de L’Amen.

CO: My personal ‘don’t miss’ moment will be the talk between composer George Benjamin and Donald McLeod, the voice of BBC Radio 3 ‘Composer of the Week’. A rare opportunity to encounter one of the world’s leading composers sharing his insights into a wide range of musical worlds.

The 2026 London Piano Festival at Kings Place runs from 29 October to 1 November. Find out more

(Image: Viktor Erik Emanuel)