New Piano Collective to Present Inaugural San Francisco International Piano Festival

SAN FRANCISCO, June 1 – Presenting ten pianists in nine concerts at seven venues, the inaugural San Francisco International Piano Festival will offer a mix of solo piano along with instrumental and vocal chamber music, spanning three centuries, performed by artists representing six countries.

The festival, which will run from August 18 through 27, is the creation of the New Piano Collective, founded in 2016 by Bay Area pianist, Jeffrey LaDeur. The New Piano Collective’s first event, a weekend of recitals in 2016 at Old First Concerts in San Francisco, received enthusiastic support from audiences, leading the group to envision a summer piano festival.

“I founded the New Piano Collective on the principles of artistry, collaboration, and innovation, and the belief that solo pianists thrive together,” LaDeur said. “In surveying the Bay Area cultural scene, it seemed incredible that such a place would not have a piano festival of its own. So we decided to create one.”

Tickets for all nine concerts are available through the festival’s website, www.sfpiano.org, or by phone at 877-497-4266. Subject to availability, tickets may be purchased at the door prior to each event. General admission tickets for individual concerts are priced at $25 for adults and $15 for students and seniors. A festival pass, providing admission to all concerts, is available for $99. Questions or requests for more information may be sent to info@sfpiano.org.

In addition to LaDeur, New Piano Collective members scheduled to perform at the festival include Jiyang Chen, Albert Kim, Eunmi Ko, Igor Lipinski, Bobby Mitchell, Daria Rabotkina, Paul Sánchez, Johnandrew Slominski, and Owen Zhou. Soprano Kayleen Sánchez, clarinetist Natalie Parker, and the Thalea String Quartet also will perform. The festival presents Kim, Ko and Kayleen Sánchez in their San Francisco debuts.

While the artists of New Piano Collective represent six countries and over a dozen institutions such as Harvard, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Academia Granados-Marshall in Barcelona, and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, all ten pianists received formative musical training at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, N.Y.

“More than an alma mater, Eastman instilled in us the common artistic values that guide our careers as performers, educators, and entrepreneurs,” LaDeur said. “In a world that is fixated on the illusion of competition and scarcity of opportunities, we are strengthened by one another’s supportive presence and creative energy.”

Venues, repertoire, concert formats provide something for everyone

Festival venues range from the mainstage of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Concert Hall, to San Francisco’s irreverent and informal PianoFight cabaret club, to an elegant private home in Piedmont. The festival also will present concerts at three diverse sites in Berkeley – the Maybeck Studio for the Performing Arts, the Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse, and the venerable Berkeley Piano Club. Festival sponsor, Steinway pianos, will host two concerts at the Steinway Gallery of Walnut Creek.

The San Francisco Piano Festival will celebrate the endless richness and variety of the solo piano literature, instrumental and vocal chamber music, premieres and debuts, anniversaries and homages. Repertoire will include works by 30 composers, ranging from Mozart, Bach, Haydn, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Debussy, and Shostakovich, to a great variety of contemporary and lesser known – though no less worthy – composers of the 20th and 21st centuries.

In addition to enjoying the performances, festival audiences will experience unique dialogue among the performers. Each salon concert will feature two pianists in repertoire of their choice. Their performances will be interspersed with interviews led by a third New Piano Collective artist, facilitating an engaging and approachable conversation between performers and audience.

Wine and hors d'oeuvres will be included with admission to several concerts and available for purchase at all events.

About the Artists

Praised by critics for his poetic and lyrical style, Jiyang Chen made his concerto debut at the age of seventeen, graduated from NYU and Eastman, and continues a thriving career as a portrait photographer in New York.

Albert Kim teaches and performs in the U.S and China as a solo and collaborative pianist. On the faculty at Linfield College from 2013-17, he joins the keyboard faculty of the University of Central Missouri in fall 2017.

Praised for “beautiful array of pianistic colors” and “original interpretation,” pianist Eunmi Ko concertizes throughout the US, South America, Asia, and Europe. She plays a wide range of piano repertoire including dozens of premieres.

Praised by the San Francisco Classical Voice for "...glowing sound...", Jeffrey LaDeur performs internationally as soloist with orchestra, recitalist, and chamber musician. He is founder and artistic director of New Piano Collective, and founding member and pianist of the Delphi Trio.

Igor Lipinski is the new Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Oklahoma, a frequent orchestra and recital soloist, and a graduate of Northwestern University and the Eastman School of Music.

Bobby Mitchell's musicianship is embedded in the here and now of music as performance art. Upcoming performances include Rzewski's iconic The People United Will Never Be Defeated! and Beethoven's fourth piano concerto with Philippe Herreweghe.

Lauded by the Cleveland Plain-Dealer as “…a pianist full of fire and warmth,” Daria Rabotkina has performed internationally with orchestra, in recital, and chamber music. She is currently serving as an Assistant Professor of Piano at Texas State University, San Marcos.

Praised by José Feghali as “a great artist,” pianist/composer Paul Sánchez is Director of Piano Studies and Artistic Director of the International Piano Series at the College of Charleston, and is Artistic Director of Dakota Sky Academy.

Johnandrew Slominski, DMA, joins the Linfield College faculty in 2017. He earned four degrees and the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. He appears worldwide and records for Centaur Records and Soundset Recordings.

Owen Zhou is a freelancing musician and teacher in Denver, Colorado. He made his New York debut in 2012 with the Scriabin Piano Concerto. Zhou is also an audio engineer, cinematographer, mountaineer and skier.

Praised by Sherod Santos for her “keen technical virtuosity… her voice [that] thrills along the spine,” soprano Kayleen Sánchez is a recitalist, pedagogue, and recording artist with particular passion for early and new music

Formed in 2014 at the Zephyr International Chamber Music Festival in Courmayeur, Italy, the Thalea String Quartet has been praised by the San Francisco Classical Voice for their “vibrant performance” and “sincere expressivity.”

Natalie Parker is Principal Clarinet of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, which she joined in January 2012. She plays frequently with the San Francisco Symphony and other regional orchestras, and enjoys performing chamber music.