Portland Piano International announces 2024 / 2025 season featuring six exceptional artists in solo recitals in Portland and Beaverton
PORTLAND, OR — Portland Piano International (PPI) announces its 2024 / 2025 Main Recital Series, curated by Angela Hewitt, one of the world's leading concert pianists and classical recording artists. Featuring 10 recitals and two master classes at venues across Portland and Beaverton, PPI's new season offers captivating programs ranging from Baroque favorites by Bach and Handel to modernist masterpieces from Scriabin, Ravel, and Prokofiev, and contemporary works by Hiromi Uehara and Lowell Lieberman.
Continuing new traditions with PPI's Main Recital Series
PPI's Main Recital Series returns for a new season of inspiring and breathtaking recitals that invite music lovers across the greater Portland community to experience the finest pianists of today — and the emerging stars of tomorrow — perform beloved solo works, hidden gems, and new music in some of the area's best venues.
The artist roster for PPI's 2024 / 2025 season includes:
Tetiana Shafran (September 15 & 17, 2024)*
Duo Amal / Yaron Kohlberg & Bishara Haroni (October 20 & 22, 2024)*
Clayton Stephenson (November 3 & 5, 2024)*
Dénes Várjon (January 12 & 14, 2025)
Ilya Yakushev (March 23, 2025)
Angela Hewitt (April 20, 2025)
* Denotes PPI debut
After the success of the new format introduced during the 2023 / 2024 season, PPI continues its new tradition of Sunday afternoon recitals at Portland State University's Lincoln Performance Hall and Tuesday evenings at The Patricia Reser Center for the Arts in Beaverton. Portland recitals will continue to be held on Sunday afternoons at 4:00 p.m. at Lincoln Performance Hall. Performances at The Reser will continue to feature each guest artist's full-length program on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 p.m., with the following exceptions:
Mr. Yakushev will perform only once this season, a Sunday afternoon program at Lincoln Performance Hall.
And to accommodate the larger audience expected for Ms. Hewitt's highly anticipated, one-afternoon-only return to PPI, her Sunday program will take place at Newmark Theatre at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts.
PPI's popular series of pre-concert talks will also continue this season. Forty-five minutes prior to each recital, PPI's Executive Director Bill Crane and resident musicologist Amelia de Vaal will offer fun and fascinating insights and contextual information that illuminate the works being performed.
Beyond the Score master classes
In addition to the Main Recital Series, PPI will offer two Beyond the Score master classes during the season. These sessions — in which visiting piano artists of international acclaim work with students of all ages whose piano playing is at a high level — are integral to one of PPI's core values: to promote music education throughout our community.
Each event is free and open to the general public, offering amateur pianists, and those with a deep curiosity for piano music, opportunities to gain a deeper understanding of the art of piano performance and gather insights from each guest artist about the traditions they carry, honed from decades of study and performances
This season's master classes will take place on Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m. in All Classical Radio's brand-new auditorium in the KOIN Tower in downtown Portland. These will be led by:
Duo Amal / Yaron Kohlberg & Bishara Haroni (October 21, 2024)
Ilya Yakushev (March 24, 2025)
Hewitt on curating the new season
"The 2024-25 season presented here is more a joint effort between myself and my longtime friend Bill Crane, PPI's Executive Director. Dénes Várjon is a highly respected musician from Hungary who performs both solo and with some of the most important instrumentalists of our time. Clayton Stephenson made an excellent impression in the finals of the 2022 Van Cliburn Competition, and I'm sure he will thrill you with his brilliant playing. The Duo Amal has chosen an exciting program, beginning with Schubert's beloved Fantasy. Both Ilya Yakushev and Tetiana Shafran will perform works written by composers from their native lands of Russia and Ukraine. And I am so looking forward to ending the season on Easter Sunday with a recital of works that are all close to my heart.
"At this time of so much strife and destruction in the world, we need beauty and live music more than ever. It strengthens the spirit and uplifts us — not just to hear great music played wonderfully, but to do so all together in a concert hall, in the company of friends."
Tickets and full season details
Subscriptions to the 2024 / 2025 Main Recital Series will be available online beginning on May 2, 2024. Single tickets go on sale August 1, 2024.
View the complete season, program information, and subscription details at portlandpiano.org/season.
MEDIA CONTACT: Jonathan Eifert, 347.741.1913
jonathan.eifert@goldsoundmedia.com
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PORTLAND PIANO INTERNATIONAL has presented more than 220 artists in recital and through outreach activities. Some of the greatest pianists in the world of music have played for Portland audiences because of this organization. While pianists have many opportunities to play the concerto repertoire, this is one of only a handful of recital series that remains devoted to the solo piano recital. Portland Piano International is a vital part of Portland's quality cultural life and it has consistently garnered praise from both the local and national media, heralded a "consistently brilliant Piano Recital Series" (Willamette Week) and "one of this city's musical treasures" (The Oregonian).