PIANOFEST returned to St. Luke’s on August 18, 2021, with two concerts in one day!

Pianofest Director Dr. Paul Shenley wrote the following:

I am very excited to share with you Pianofest's vision for our upcoming 2021 summer season. After a year away, Pianofest is returning to St. Luke’s Episcopalian Church in front of live audiences. Unlike previous summers, the performers will be drawn from distinguished Pianofest alumni, and the size of the audiences will be limited by C.D.C. protocols.

This new model will allow us to return to some sense of normalcy - and give all the Pianofest family optimism and hope for an eventual full return to educational and performance standards of previous years.

Our alumni artists, which will include Zsolt Bognar, Michael Brown, Michelle Cann, Ran Dank, Fei-Fei, James Giles, Jacopo Giacopuzzi, Natalia Lavrova, Soyeon Kate Lee, Anthony Molinaro, Awadagin Pratt, Konstantin Soukhovetski and Orion Weiss will provide us with this wonderful bridge along the way to the future.

These artists are among a highly diverse and critically-acclaimed group of musicians on a global scale such as pianist Michelle Cann who made headlines recently for performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra and The Cleveland Orchestra. Michael Brown has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.” Many in the classical music world will know host and pianist Zsolt Bognár from the enormously successful series Living the Classical Life with over three million views. Fei-Fei is a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition and a top finalist at the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. People who summer out East will know Orion Weiss who regularly appears at the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, as well as many of the major orchestras across the U.S. Awadagin Pratt notably performed at the White House on three separate occasions. 

You can learn more about our artists here: www.pianofest.com/alumni-artists

You, our devoted and supportive audience members have always been at the heart of our mission. We hope you will be an important part of this summer's program, by joining us at performances and continuing your financial support. In this way, you will help to provide opportunities for the many talented new students who will attend Pianofest in the coming years.

Music inspires our most profound and intimate feelings, thoughts and expressions. Working together, we look forward to sharing this beautiful world of sentiment and feelings with you.

Sincerely,

Paul Schenly, Director