The 31st annual International Piano Festival will be bringing a variety of musical talents and master classes, hosted by the Moores School of Music, on Friday to Sunday at the Moores Opera House. | Jessica Sunny/The Daily Cougar
The Moores School of Music presents the 31st annual International Piano Festival, an exciting weekend of recitals and master classes, from Friday to Sunday. This year’s festival encompasses an array of talented musical artists, including festival founder and grand master of piano Abbey Simon, Italian concert artist Sandro Russo and revolutionary piano duo Anderson and Roe. Recitals will be performed in the Moores Opera House, and master classes will be held in UH’s Dudley Recital Hall.
Simon, a Cullen Professor of Piano, has an impressive background, from an education at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia to winning awards like the Walter Naumburg Prize to Distinguished Teacher Award. He founded the festival in 1984 at a time when piano festivals had yet to exist.
“When I started it, there was nothing like it in the Southwest,” Simon said. “I’ve never put on a festival before. I was scared out of my wits. There was money involved and it wasn’t mine.”
When discussing his choice of this year’s guest artists, Russo, Anderson and Roe, Simon said he likes to always have a variety of musical tastes, hopefully new to audiences’ ears.
“I always think it’s interesting for students to hear how Italians play Beethoven and Chopin, and how Germans play,” Simon said. “We have had Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese artists perform. We’ve had many South American. They get a choice.”
Innovative piano duo Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe, known for their exhilarating performances and Emmy-nominated and self-produced music videos, are sure to bring audiences a refreshing surprise with their crisscrossing style of duet piano playing. The duo initially met as freshmen at The Juilliard School.
“We’re excited to perform such incredible, overwhelming music, and we hope to give it the justice it deserves,” Anderson said. “And we’re especially thrilled to perform in Houston for the first time together as a duo; we’ve had so much fun performing for Texan audiences in the past.”
Roe shares the excitement.
“We are thrilled and excited to take part in this festival alongside luminaries like Abbey Simon, an artist who has inspired us throughout our musical lives,” Roe said. “We look forward to sharing our creative passions with the Houston audience, and as always, we aim to celebrate the inspiration and joy of music.”
Music senior Alex Winkler, an aspiring composer and performer, also looks forward to the Piano Festival.
“Aside from our outstanding piano faculty, which is one of the brightest gems of (the) Moores School, the Piano Festival hosted annually on campus makes UH one of the best places to be for pianists and enthusiasts of the instrument,” Winkler said. “The prestigious Anderson and Roe duo is overflowing with creativity and will be a must-see for any music lover.”
In addition to the festival’s lineup of performances to see, students have the option of receiving master piano classes from Simon, Russo or Anderson and Roe.
Simon said he hopes to teach lessons not just to current UH students, but to bring in new talents from, for example, a high school or even out of the state or country.
“As a teacher, you have the quality, an approach, that is personal that you can transmit somehow to the student. And if you can’t do that, then it’s a waste of time,” Simon said. “I can remember my own teachers. They were very strange people. But I survived.”
Through Simon’s five years of teaching, musical arts doctoral student Amanda Hughes feels her piano skills have improved greatly.
“He is very direct and honest. He is also very supportive. You can tell he really cares about his students and will push you until he gets that result,” Hughes said. “When I listen back to myself when I first started, it’s amazing to hear how I really changed with him.
“It’s been great working with him, to hear his stories and his experiences. He’s been all around during the golden age of piano playing. He taught pianists who I look up to now like Martha Argerich (and) Frederic Chiu.”
