World Piano Day 2026
Piano Day is an annual worldwide event that takes place on the 88th day of the year, which in 2026 is March 29. Every year, it inspires to special concerts, onstage and online, as well as radio shows, podcasts, and playlists. Established in 2015, it is now well known across the globe. Since its founding in 2015, Piano Day has […]
The Prodigy Who Saw Into the Future – Lili Boulanger’s Piano Music
A teenage girl with forward-looking ideas, Lili Boulanger had enough determination to successfully navigate the competitive, patriarchal, and conservative music scene of Paris. Despite a constant fight against illness, she achieved great mastery as a composer, and left behind a significant catalog of works characterized by intense emotional depth, in a sophisticated, post-Romantic, Impressionist style. Now, all her scores for […]
Liszt Utrecht 2026: A New Chapter in a Legendary Competition
From a cold and snowy Stockholm, and perhaps carrying a grain of skepticism towards Carl Maria von Weber’s solo piano music, Piano Street’s Patrick Jovell landed in a spring-sunny Utrecht, Netherlands. Yet, as the 40th anniversary of the Liszt Utrecht festival and competition unfolds, the weather isn’t the only thing defying expectations. Thanks to a clever curatorial lens, a sunnier, […]
New Piano Market Report: Inside the Quiet Transformation of Piano Playing
For those of us who spend our lives on the bench — whether teaching, practicing for a recital, or simply playing for the love of it – the piano has always been a singular concept: wood, felt, strings, and soul. Yet, recent global market reports reveal that the definition of our instrument is expanding and evolving in ways that affect […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
World Piano Day 2025
Piano Day is an annual worldwide event that takes place on the 88th day of the year, which in 2025 is March 29. Every year, it provokes special concerts, onstage and online, as well as radio shows, podcasts, and playlists. Established in 2015, it is now well known across the globe and this year we celebrate it’s 10th anniversary! Piano […]
Alink-Argerich Piano Competitions Directory – 2025 Edition
In today’s crowded music competition landscape, it’s challenging for young musicians to discern which opportunities are truly worthwhile. The new 2025 edition of the Argerich-Alink Foundation’s comprehensive guide to piano competitions, provides valuable insights and inspiration for those competing or aspiring to compete, but also for anyone who just wants an updated overview of the global piano landscape. As a […]
When Practice Stagnates: Robotic Training for Pianists
“Practice makes perfect” is a common mantra for any pianist, but we all know it’s an oversimplification. While practice often leads to improvement, true perfection is elusive. But according to recent research, a robotic exoskeleton hand could help pianists improve their speed of performing difficult pianistic patterns, by overcoming the well-known “ceiling effect”. Both professional pianists and piano students of […]