Abbey Simon will perform at Faust Harrison Pianos

May 13th at 7 p.m.

A New Yorker by birth, Abbey Simon received part of his academic education and his major musical training at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he was accepted by Joseph Hofmann when he was eleven years old. Shortly after his graduation from Curtis, he won the coveted Walter W. Naumberg award, which carries with it a Town Hall debut in New York City. The debut recital was followed by recitals in new York’s Carnegie Hall and extensive tours throughout the United States and Canada, which were interrupted only for enlistment in the United States army during the war.

Abbey Simon has been heard with most of the great orchestras of Europe under such eminent conductors as Sir John Barbirolli, Joseph Krips, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Walter Susskind, Colin Davis, Antal Dorati, Rafael Kubelik, George Szell, Wilhelm von Otterloo, Dean Dixon, Massimo Freccia, Eduard van Beinum, Carlo Maria Giulini, Ozawa, Mehta, Leinsdorf.

Frederic Chiu will perform at Faust Harrison Pianos

May 14th at 7 p.m.

Frederic Chiu has released over 20 CDs, including the complete piano works of Prokofiev, as well as works of Chopin, Liszt, Ravel, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Rossini and Grieg. Stereo Review chose his release of three rarely played sonatas of Mendelssohn as “Record of the Year”, and his most recent recording, the Beethoven/Liszt Symphony V, was produced by Judith Sherman, 2008 Grammy Producer of the Year.

Recent seasons have seen him in Memphis, Omaha, Des Moines, Portland, ME, Jacksonville, Carmel, CA, Syracuse, and San Francisco and performances with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, with Philharmonia Virtuosi, the Elgin Symphony and the Dayton Philharmonic. Mr. Chiu was a featured artist at the Valery Gergiev Festival in Rotterdam. He performed the rarely-played Left Hand Concerto of Prokofiev with the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Estonia National Symphony and the Riverside Symphony at Lincoln Center in New York. He also toured in Japan and China. He recently completed a tour with long-time friend and collaborative partner, Joshua Bell, where they performed the Mendelssohn Double Concerto for Violin and Piano. On a previous tour, they premiered a Sonata for Violin and Piano commissioned from Edgar Meyer.

Alexander A. Wu will perform at Faust Harrison Pianos

May 15th at 7 p.m.

Yamaha Artist and Pianist, Alexander A. Wu brings you “Fascinatin’ Rhythms”, a range of universal emotions expressed by composers throughout the ages and with an entertaining mix of music from Spain and Latin America, to the jazz classics of George Gershwin, Dave Brubeck and Oscar Peterson.

As a New York pianist, Alexander Wu has given numerous solo recitals throughout the United States and abroad. He has also appeared as both a soloist with orchestras, and a chamber player with distinguished artists in the classical, Latin andjazz worlds. Some of Mr. Wu’s recent engagements have included St. Martin in the Fields Church (London), Academia di Chigiana (Siena), Hotel del Agua, Hotel del Ornia and Auditorio del Conservatorio Victoria Superior (Granada), Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, David Rubenstein Atrium and Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall, Mannes College of Music Auditorium, Musikfest and Jazz Winterfest on the Vine. This spring Mr. Wu was featured and on live radio interviews with WXEL, NPR, WUSF and ADO/Univision for his South Florida tours sponsored by Steinway & sons and Starbucks and Bass Museum. He was a guest artist with the Juan de Salazar Spanish Cultural Center in Paraguay, South America where he performed three concerts of Spanish and Latin American music and conducted a piano master class at the Spanish Embassy.

Lincoln Mayorga & Steven Richman

May 17th at 7 p.m.

Come to Faust Harrison on Monday evening, May 17, 7 PM, for Harmonia Mundi Recordings' press gathering, announcing the release of "Gershwin by Grofe (Original orchestrations and arrangements), a new recording by the Harmonie Ensemble of New York, conducted by Steven Richman, featuring Lincoln Mayorga, piano, and Al Gallodoro, clarinet and saxophone: Lincoln Mayorga will perform songs and solo piano pieces by the composer and his pianist-colleagues in New York, and conductor Steven Richman will talk about the working relationship between George Gershwin and Ferde Grofe which is explored in this new CD.

Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 6pm - Faust Harrison Pianos

With your help, we hope to raise $40,000 during the concert. All proceeds will go to prostheses and rehabilitation for Haitian amputees. Proceeds are tax deductible. Seating is very limited. Please RSVP immediately at karen@hashaiti.org or call at 412-361-4660.

Chopin/Schumann bicentennial celebration to be performed by:

Piano Recital
Vassily Primakov performs for MISHKA Children Foundation

Faust Harrison Pianos on March 7, 2010 at 6:00 p.m.

MISHKA Children Foundation together with Bridge Recordsand Faust Harrison Pianos is hosting a piano recital at Faust Harrison Pianos on February 26th, 2010. All proceeds from the ticket sales will go to sponsor medical procedures for children in the former USSR countries.

The evening features a special appearance by Vassily Primakov, a highly acclaimed Moscow-born pianist whose performance will bring a special visionary touch to the works by Shostakovich (Twenty-Four Preludes Op. 34: 1932-1933) and Rachmaninoff (Ten Preludes (Op. 23: 1901-1903; Op. 32: 1910). Guests will enjoy superb music making while viewing one of the great homes of the world's finest European pianos and magnificently restored Steinways.

About the performer

Vassily Primakov's performances and recordings have drawn rave reviews from the international critical press, the New York Times commenting that “his bold expressive phrasing and dramatic commitment brought the audience to its feet.”  In December 2009, National Public Radio named his “Chopin: 21 Mazurkas” CD to its “Best of the Year” list.  Primakov has performed on four continents, and has been a prize-winner in many of the world's most prestigious competitions.

As noted by Irina Kovaleva, the Founder of MISHKA Children Foundation, “The concert will not be only of benefit to those listening but also provide funds for those in need. The upcoming concert is a perfect example of how classical music can enlighten minds, unite hearts and support a cause!”

Becky Starobin, President of Bridge Records, remarked that “Bridge Records is honored to collaborate with Faust Harrison Pianos for the benefit of the MISHKA Children Foundation.  The support received from the guests at this event will raise money for noble cause of providing medical support for the orphaned children of the former Soviet countries.”  

February 28th, 7:30 p.m.
Faust Harrison Pianos will host a concert by Hannah Sun.

Music by Beethoven, Rameau and Chopin.
Tickets at the door, $10 suggested donation.

Hannah Sun, born in 1989, began studying the piano at the age of two in her native China. Her first teacher was her mother, concert pianist Qi Melody He. After she moved to Australia in 1995, she studied with Nehama Patkin, Stephen McIntyre, and Geoffrey Tozer, and performed several concertos with orchestra. Since moving to New York in 2002, she has studied with Phillip Kawin, the late Constance Keene, and Miyoko Lotto in the Manhattan School of Music Pre-college division as a full scholarship student, and currently with Jerome Lowenthal as a scholarship recipient at The Juilliard School.

Hannah was named First Prize Winner in the Second New York Piano Competition in June 2004, presented under the auspices of The Stecher and Horowitz Foundation. As the First Prize Winner, she had the opportunity to concertize in venues up and down the East Coast. Hannah's first concert following the NYPC was performing the Schumann Piano Concerto four weeks later with The Manhattan Chamber Orchestra at New York's Trinity Church, appearing under the baton of Richard Aulden Clark. Hannah's participation in this competition has been viewed nationally in the documentary BEYOND THE PRACTICE ROOM, a behind-the-scenes look at the competition, shown on PBS. Following the competition, she has also appeared several times on the McGraw-Hill Young Artists Showcase hosted by Robert Sherman on WQXR, New York’s Classical Music Radio Station.

Other performances with orchestra have been Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Orchestra of Southern Utah under Xun Sun in 2005, Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A Major, K.414 with the LaGuardia Symphony Orchestra in 2007, which she conducted from the piano, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Corda Spirita Chamber Orchestra in Brisbane, Australia the following year, under John Curro.

Hannah has also received numerous scholarships and awards, such as a scholarship to attend the Fontainebleau Summer Music Festival, where she received the Prix Nadia Boulanger, Silver Award from the National Foundation of the Advancement of the Arts, after which she attended the youngARTS week in Miami, Florida, third prize in the Kosciuszko Foundation's Chopin Piano Competition, first prize in the Long Island School Media Association (LISMA) International Music Competition, full scholarships at the International Keyboard Institute and Festival at Mannes College of Music, full scholarship to the International Academy of Music in St. Petersburg, Russia, and grants from the Children's Foundation for the Arts.

Hannah also studied conducting at LaGuardia High School, where she was an instrumental student, and at the Manhattan School of Music Pre-college division. She has conducted the LaGuardia Symphony Orchestra, in concert, in Mozart’s “Magic Flute” Overture and Mozart’s Piano Concerto K414 from the piano.

Jerome Lowenthal performs Liszt in Switzerland

January 15, 2010, 7pm, Free Event
Faust Harrison Pianos
205 W 58th St, NYC
Availability:40 seats on a first come, first served basis, plus standing room
(no reservations accepted) There are parking garages nearby and limited street parking available.

Faust Harrison Pianos proudly presents Jerome Lowenthal in a solo recital.

Jerome Lowenthal is an internationally renowned, award-winning pianist, and piano professor at Juilliard.

Jerome studied in his native Philadelphia with Olga Samaroff-Stokowski, in New York With William Kapell and Edward Steuermann, and in Paris with Alfred Cartot, meanwhile traveling annually to Los Angeles for coachings with Artur Rubinstein.

Mr. Lowenthal made his debut with the New York Philharmonic playing Bartok’s Concerto no. 2 in 1963.  He has since performed worldwide from the Aleutians to Zagreb.

Conductors with whom he has appeared as a soloist include Barenboim, Ozawa, Tilson Thomas, Temirkanov, and Slatkin, as well as such giants of the past as Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy, Pierre Monteux and Leopold Stokowski.  He has played sonatas with Itzhak Perlman, piano duos with Ronit Amir (his late wife), Carmel Lowenthal (his daughter), and Ursula Oppens, as well as quintets with the Lark, Avalon and Shanghai Quartets.  He has recently recorded the Beethoven Fourth Concerto with cadenzas by eleven different composers.  His other recordings include concerti by Tschaikovsky and Liszt, solo works by Sinding and Bartok, and chamber-music by Arensky and Taneyev.

John Kwon Performing Beethoven and Chopin

Friday, October 9, 2009 - 7pm, Free Event
Faust Harrison Pianos
205 W 58th St, NYC

Born in Seoul, South Korea, John Kwon studied at the Juilliard Pre-College and received his Bachelor's and Master's degree from Mannes college of Music. He has participated in the 50th anniversary edition of the Beethoven Masterkurs in Positano, Italy, given by John O'Conor under the auspices of the Fondazione Culturale Wilhelm Kempff and presented two different and unique programs honoring Vladimir Horowitz, performing on Maestro Horowitz's own touring piano under Steinways & Sons joined by Franz Mohr, the legendary piano technician. A recipient of Jerry Seinfeld Family Foundation and Irene Levoy Foundation, Mr. Kwon is a proud graduate of F. H LaGuardia High School of Music & Arts.

Performance by Paul Badura-Skoda

Thursday March 5, 2009
Faust Harrison Pianos
205 W 58th St, NYC

Paul Van Ness, Piano

Friday April 11, 2008 at 7 PM Free Event
Playing Bach, Beethoven Chopin and Rachmaninoff

Mr. Van Ness has performed widely in the United States, Europe and Asia, including substantial repeat tours of Eastern and Western Europe, and Taiwan. He has appeared with a variety of orchestras, most notably the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Symphonie du Capitole de Toulouse, the Plovdiv and Varna Symphony Orchestras in Bulgaria and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in Germany. He was invited to perform under the auspices of the Chopin Society in Warsaw, Poland, the Vienna Academy of Music, and many other musical institutions.  He retired from his teaching post at Cal Sate University, Los Angeles in 2004.  Paul is now an artist and sales representative for Faust Harrison Pianos.