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Opening Night: La Musique Française de Piano
Aug
23
8:00 PM20:00

Opening Night: La Musique Française de Piano

The 7th annual San Francisco International Piano Festival returns to Old First with a celebration of French keyboard music across the centuries. In addition to highlighting the music of Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) in his centennial year, opening night will feature works by Couperin, Chabrier, and Séverac, celebrating a variety of musical voices within the French tradition. Festival favorite and fellow Francophile Gwendolyn Mok will join artistic director Jeffrey LaDeur and special guests Sarah Yuan and Munan Cheng in this opening concert. Bienvenue à tous!  

Gwendolyn Mok, piano 

Jeffrey LaDeur, piano 

Sarah Yuan & Munan Cheng, piano 

François Couperin (1668-1733)
Ordre No. 25 (1730) 

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Nocturne No.1 Op.33 No.1 
Impromptu No.3 Op.34 
Impromptu Op.86b

Selections from Dolly Suite Op.56 

Déodat de Séverac (1872-1921) 
from Cerdaña 

Fêtes
Les muletiers devant le Christ de Llivia 

Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894) 
Habanera 
Bourrée fantasque

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Solo Recital Series: Asiya Korepanova, piano
Aug
25
4:00 PM16:00

Solo Recital Series: Asiya Korepanova, piano

Transformations

Original Transcriptions by the Artist 

The San Francisco International Piano Festival is proud to present pianist and composer Asiya Korepanova in her San Francisco debut recital. Ms. Korepanova begins with a nod to our featured composer, Gabriel Fauré, before launching into a diverse array of virtuosic and emotionally captivating music, all in her own transcriptions. 

The only pianist in the world who performed the complete Rachmaninoff solo piano works within the composer’s 150th-anniversary year in 2023, Asiya Korepanova is a pianistic powerhouse hailed as a "tremendously gifted pianist who exhibits a singular affinity for Rachmaninoff’s Russian romantic idiom and possesses the blazing technique to fully realize his distinctive scores" (South Florida Classical Review), who is also highly recognized as a composer, visual artist, and poet. A herald of an enormous repertoire encompassing over 60 piano concertos and solo works ranging from early Baroque period to music of living composers, Asiya is a quintessential completist. She finds unique joy in performing complete collections of works such as the 24 Liszt Etudes or the entire Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach. Her emotionally charged and colorfully nuanced performances have gained her the admiration of audiences and resulted in many repeat engagements. 

Asiya, a pianist and composer, draws her musical inspiration from the legacy of Dmitry Shostakovich, having studied composition under his direct disciple, Albert Leman.She is the author of original works in multiple genres and instrumentations. Her historic solo piano transcriptions of Richard Strauss’ 'Ein Heldenleben', Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata, Tchaikovsky's 'Manfred' Symphony,  Mussorgsky's 'Songs and Dances of Death' have placed her among today’s formidable transcribers.The most recent composition events include the world premiere recording of Asiya’s concerto for alto saxophone and piano, Poéme, performed by Thomas Giles and Liana Pailodze Harron; the publication of her transcription of Rachmaninoff's cello sonata; the premiere of her Piano Quintet ‘I marvel at the sky’, commissioned by the Third Dimension Music Festival; and the premiere of Con Brio for two pianos, performed with her duo partner Ilya Kazantsev as a part of the Dranoff Two Piano Foundation series.

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)

Élégie

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Introduction Polonaise Brillante Op.3

Amy Beach
(1867-1944) 

Extase Op. 21, #2
I send my heart up to thee! Op. 44, #3

Alban Berg (1885-1935)  

Liebesode from Sieben Frühe Lieder

César Franck (1822-1890)

Le Mariage des Roses

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)

Songs and Dances of Death

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)   

Sonata for Cello and Piano Op.19

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Noontime Concerts: Markus Pawlik & Ariel Pawlik-Zwiebel
Aug
27
12:30 PM12:30

Noontime Concerts: Markus Pawlik & Ariel Pawlik-Zwiebel

Join us for our annual co-presentation with Noontime Concerts featuring father and son duo Markus Pawlik, piano and Ariel Pawlik-Zwiebel, violin. This free lunchtime concert will include solo piano works by Fauré and works for violin and piano by Schubert, Ravel, and Franck.


Ariel Pawlik-Zwiebel, violin

Markus Pawlik, piano

Schubert Violin Sonata No. 2 in A minor D.385 I. Allegro moderato        
Fauré Nocturne in B Major Op. 33 No.2                                                    

Ravel Tzigane                                                              
Fauré Barcarolle in F-Sharp Op. 66                                             
Franck Violin Sonata  in A Major 

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Schumann & Sherlock Jr.
Aug
30
8:00 PM20:00

Schumann & Sherlock Jr.

The Festival is thrilled to present the return of Stephen Prutsman and the Telegraph Quartet in piano quintets of contrasting brilliance. Beginning with Robert Schumann's beloved Quintet Op.44, the set will change during intermission from concert hall to movie theater for a screening with live accompaniment. As the saying goes, the Silents were never silent, and Stephen Prutsman's dazzling score to Buster Keaton's 1924 classic Sherlock Jr. matches the genius of the film at every step. Join us for an eclectic and joyful evening of chamber music at its best performed by some of the Bay Area's brightest musical stars.

Stephen Prutsman, piano 

Telegraph String Quartet 

Eric Chin & Joseph Maile, violins 

Pei-Ling Lin, viola

Jeremiah Shaw, cello

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) 

Piano Quintet Op.44 

Stephen Prutsman (1960-)

Original score to Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr. (1924)

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Festival Finale: Cycles of Life
Sep
1
4:00 PM16:00

Festival Finale: Cycles of Life

The Festival comes full circle with a special program of musical cycles that mirror those in nature, joining the glory of the voice with the wonders of the piano. Debussy's Êpigraphes antiques invoke the god Pan, give voice to an anonymous tomb, conjure a mysterious Egyptian woman, and offer thanks for the morning rain before reprising Pan's invocation. Emma Bardac, a celebrated French singer who would later become Madame Claude Debussy, inspired Fauré's passionate and life-affirming La Bonne Chanson. Fauré weaves these 9 songs with subtly recurring motifs while their freshness and apparent spontaneity create the atmosphere of improvisation. The final song, "L'hiver a cessé", is one of Fauré's most inspired and ecstatic creations.  

The song cycle is alive and well in the hands of a new generation of composers, and the festival is honored to present the world premiere of Quinn Mason's cycle on poetry of Kalena Bovell, commissioned jointly by the San Francisco International Piano Festival and Lieder Alive! Mr. Mason's Piano Sonata was premiered during the 2021 festival at Old First by pianist Nicholas Phillips to great acclaim. 

To bring our celebration of Fauré and his circle to a close, the festival concludes with Florent Schmitt's Trois Rhapsodies (1904) for two pianos. A student of Fauré, Florent Schmitt achieved a masterful blend of wit, infectious charm, and virtuosity in this work. Each rhapsody presents a larger than life tableau of national styles of the period: Française, Polonaise, & Viennoise. Beloved Bay Area artists Kindra Scharich and Gwendloyn Mok join Jeffrey LaDeur to present this finale concert. 

Celebrate the unity and joy of these wonderful compositions as we close out season 7!    

Presented in Collaboration with Lieder Alive! 

Kindra Scharich, mezzo-soprano

Gwendolyn Mok, piano 

Jeffrey LaDeur, piano 

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) 
Six épigraphes antiques for piano duet 

Gabriel Fauré
(1845-1924) 

La Bonne Chanson Op.61

Quinn Mason
(1996-)

Song Cycle on Poems of Kalena Bovell (World Premiere

Florent Schmitt
(1870-1958)

Trois Rhapsodies Op.53 for two pianos 


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