Chopin and His Europe Festival Returns
Warsaw is once again gearing up for one of its annual musical highlights. The 21st edition of the Chopin and His Europe Festival kicked off on 20 August and runs until 6 September, packing in 29 concerts featuring a mix of world-renowned soloists, orchestras, and chamber ensembles. As always, audiences can expect a blend of beloved classics and rediscovered gems. […]
The Piano Taking Center Stage at the 2025 Verbier Festival
For piano lovers, the Verbier Festival 2025 again shaped up to be a dream come true. This summer, the festival was rolling out one of its most interesting piano lineups yet, blending household names, rising stars, and even a little jazz for good measure. From mid-July through early August, nearly every day was offering something exciting for anyone who could […]
The Crucible of Keys: A Century of Glory and Grit at the Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition
The piano world is buzzing with excitement this summer. As we predicted, recent media channels have been dominated by news and updates from three of the world’s most prestigious piano competitions: Chopin, Cliburn, and Queen Elisabeth. In its recent issue, the magazine “The World of Piano Competitions” dedicated a special feature to the Queen Elisabeth Competition, where Piano Street’s Patrick […]
Bringing Florence Price Back to Life: An Inside Look with Pianist Han Chen
A new recording of Florence Price’s Piano Concerto shines new light on the pioneering composer’s legacy. In this interview, Piano Street talks to pianist Han Chen, who reflects on Price’s fusion of Romantic and African American idioms, and the personal journey of interpreting her music for modern audiences. Pianist Han Chen can be heard on a recent recording of Florence […]
The World of Piano Competitions – issue 1 2025
The World of Piano Competitions is a magazine initiated by PIANIST Magazine (Netherlands and Germany) and its Editor-in-Chief Eric Schoones. Here we get a rich insight into the world of international piano competitions through the eyes of its producers and participants. Click cover to download: Free download! As a collaborating partner Piano Street is happy to share the 13th issue […]
Not Just a Pianist: The Many Voices of Alfred Brendel
Alfred Brendel, the Czech‑born Austrian pianist, essayist and poet, died peacefully at age 94 on June 17, 2025, in London. Celebrated for his deeply intellectual interpretations of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and Liszt, he reshaped classical performance with clarity, wit and literary flair. His legacy endures through recordings, writings and mentorship. I had the privilege of meeting Alfred Brendel after a performance […]
The Quiet Revolutionary of the Piano – Fauré’s Complete Piano Works Now on Piano Street
In the pantheon of French music, Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) often seems a paradox—an innovator cloaked in restraint, a Romantic by birth who shaped the contours of modern French music with quiet insistence. Piano Street now provides sheet music for his complete piano works: a body of music that resists spectacle, even as it brims with invention and brilliance. Fauré’s piano […]
Piano Competitions Flourish in 2025 – A Unique Clash
The year 2025 promises to be an exciting one for the piano world, with the top three prestigious piano competitions taking center stage worldwide. With Chopin, taking place each five years, Cliburn each four and Queen Elisabeth with varying intervals of 3-5 years, this unique clash happens for the first time ever. International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition One of the […]
Music is an Adventure – Interview with Randall Faber
Randall Faber, alongside his wife Nancy, is well-known for co-authoring the best-selling Piano Adventures teaching method. Their books, recognized globally for fostering students’ creative and cognitive development, have sold millions of copies worldwide. Previously translated into nine languages, Piano Adventures is now also available in Dutch and German. Eric Schoones had the pleasure of speaking with Randall Faber about his […]
Akiko’s Piano: The Memories of a Piano – 80 Years After the Atomic Bomb
Can a piano develop something like a personality and retain memories of the people who have played it? This is one of the questions asked in a play by Heike Tauch and Florian Goldberg in which one of the main characters is a piano that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Since it was restored in the early 2000s, “Akiko’s […]
Watch the Preliminaries of the Chopin Competition
The Preliminaries of the 19th International Chopin Competition are underway in the Chamber Music Hall of the Warsaw Philharmonic. From April 23 to May 4, 163 pianists from 28 countries are performing their best Chopin etudes, nocturnes, scherzos, and mazurkas. Watch all performances online and form your opinion about who is worthy of a place in the final stages of […]
Women and the Chopin Competition: Breaking Barriers in Classical Music
The piano, a sleek monument of polished wood and ivory keys, holds a curious, often paradoxical, position in music history, especially for women. While offering a crucial outlet for female expression in societies where opportunities were often limited, it also became a stage for complex gender dynamics, sometimes subtle, sometimes stark. From drawing-room whispers in the 19th century to the […]