Paul Lewis, piano
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Guest Artists visit SFCM to share their expertise with student musicians.
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven: Bagatelles, Op. 126
I. Andante con moto, Cantabile e compiacevole
II. Allegro
III. Andante, Cantabile e grazioso
IV. Presto
V. Quasi allegretto
VI. Presto — Andante amabile e con moto
Hyojin Shin, piano
Frédéric Chopin: Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52
Parker Van Ostrand, piano
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Moments Musicaux, Op. 16
I. Andantino
II. Allegretto
III. Andante cantabile
IV. Presto
Yi-Chen Feng, piano
Artists
Paul Lewis, piano
Paul Lewis is internationally regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. His cycles of core piano works by Beethoven and Schubert have received unanimous critical and public acclaim worldwide, and consolidated his reputation as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the central European classical repertoire. His numerous awards have included the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year, two Edison awards, three Gramophone awards, the Diapason D’or de l’Annee, the Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana, and the South Bank Show Classical Music award. He holds honorary degrees from Liverpool, Edge Hill, and Southampton Universities, and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours.
He works regularly as soloist with the world’s great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, NHK Symphony, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, and the Royal Concertgebouw, Cleveland, Tonhalle Zurich, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Philharmonia, and Mahler CThe 2017/18 season saw the start of a two year recital series, exploring connections between the sonatas of Haydn, the late piano works of Brahms, and Beethoven’s Bagatelles and Diabelli Variations, as well as appearances with the WDR Sinfonieorchester, Orchestra Mozart di Bologna, Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms series continues through the 18/19 season, alongside appearances with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal and Kent Nagano, the Berlin Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony with Bernard Haitink, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Manfred Honeck, and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich with Francois-Xavier Roth.
Paul Lewis’s recital career takes him to venues such as London’s Royal Festival Hall, Alice Tully and Carnegie Hall in New York, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Berlin Philharmonie and Konzerthaus. He is also a frequent guest at the some of the world’s most prestigious festivals, including Tanglewood, Ravinia, Schubertiade, Edinburgh, Salzburg, Lucerne, and the BBC Proms where in 2010 he became the first person to play a complete Beethoven piano concerto cycle in a single season.
His multi-award winning discography for Harmonia Mundi includes the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, concertos, and the Diabelli Variations, Liszt’s B minor sonata and other late works, all of Schubert’s major piano works from the last six years of his life including the 3 song cycles with tenor Mark Padmore, solo works by Schumann and Mussorgsky, and the Brahms D minor piano concerto with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding. Future recording plans include a multi-CD series of Haydn sonatas, Beethoven’s bagatelles, and works by Bach.
Paul Lewis studied with Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London before going on to study privately with Alfred Brendel. He is co-Artistic Director of Midsummer Music, an annual chamber music festival held in Buckinghamshire, UK.
Departments
About SFCM's Piano Department
SFCM pianists study in a focused, energized, and supportive environment. Artist-teachers with a wealth of international performing experience provide close instruction and mentorship to an exclusive group of fewer than 50 students. Performance opportunities within the Conservatory and around San Francisco help prepare students for a career at the highest professional level. Students also have the chance to enter a yearly concerto competition, the winner of which performs with the Conservatory Orchestra. Interdepartmental collaboration, guest artist residencies, and master classes round out a transformative piano education. Recent guest artists include Emanuel Ax, Sergei Babayan, Richard Goode, Stephen Hough, Menahem Pressler, and Shai Wosner.
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