This weekend marks the autumn equinox, and the reddening leaves and cool, clear air give imminent promise of an exciting new season for Corvallis-OSU Piano International. Our flagship Steinway Piano Series presents three extraordinary pianists, and you won’t want to miss the first weekend of March, when a fascinating lecture concert anchors our People and Pianos Celebration.
2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the passing of French composer Claude Debussy. In just a few weeks, one of the world’s foremost Debussy pianists and scholars—Paul Roberts—returns to Corvallis for his acclaimed three-day adult piano workshop. We are still accepting a few more participants.
The Steinway Series begins in mid-November with Lukáš Vondráček. The Czech pianist impressed Portland audiences earlier this year with his program featuring works of Robert Schumann as well as three Czech composers. Next, early in 2019, Jeremy Denk—most requested by the COPI audience—presents one of the most fascinating programs we’ve seen. I knew Jeremy as a fellow Oberlin student who wowed us all with his ability to play anything—even while tackling a challenging double major in piano and chemistry! Capping this series in April is the brilliant South Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son, silver medalist at both the Tchaikovsky and Van Cliburn competitions, offering a beautiful program of Chopin and Scriabin preludes.
The first two days of March feature our lecture concert and People and Piano Celebration. Alpin Hong, known as a “modern-day Pied Piper” and “pianistic firebrand,” examines musical theme and variations with sage insight and humor. The next day, the Corvallis Library becomes a pianistic carnival, with talks, performances, readings, our popular Children’s Concert, and cake!
We look forward to sharing pianos and pianists with you. Thanks to the generosity of concert sponsors, we are able to continue packaging Steinway Series concerts as a $60 season ticket—an astonishing offer in this day and age for such a rarefied level of performance. And students always attend for free with school ID. Allow the magic of the piano to surprise, delight, and transform you in the months ahead, as cloudy days and cool rains invite us to nurture our inner lives while they replenish our beautiful land.
~ Matt Goodrich
