Tuesdays Till Two - Lunchtime Piano Concert: Valentin Schiedermair

About

Our lunchtime concert season continues with our second solo piano concert of the season, given by German pianist Valentin Schiedermair, who is performing at St John's for the first time.

As ever the church will be open for an hour before the concert begins, with volunteers from the pop-up café team offering lots of home made sweet and savoury treats as well as hot and cold drinks.

The concert will begin promptly at 1pm. Admission is free, but those who are able to afford it are asked to make a donation. The suggested amount is £5.

Programme:

Scarlatti - Sonatas in E major K.380 & 531
Soler - Sonatas in D minor and D major
Beethoven - Pathétique Sonata in C minor Op.13
Chopin - Waltz in A flat major Op.34 No.1
Rachmaninov - Etude-tableau in F sharp minor Op.39 No.3
Liszt - Tarantella di Napoli

About Valentin Schiedermair:

A Valentin Schiedermair performance is more than just a concert: it is a musical event. This London-based German pianist engages with his audience and draws on all his exceptional background and experience to take them on a musical journey. His objective is simple - to share the joy and excitement of music with his audience.

Valentin Schiedermair’s solo tours of China, Taiwan and Singapore drew enthusiastic audiences in fifteen major cities. In Taipei alone he has already given six recitals and they usually finish only after five or six encores. The University of Shenzhen has awarded him a guest professorship in recognition of his contribution to the musical exchange between China and Germany. TimeOut magazine in Singapore made his recital No1 critics’ choice of the month. It was attended by the German Ambassador and he was invited to give the final concert of the first Singapore Beethoven Sonata Cycle. He also gave the opening concert of the Beethoven Piano Festival in Beethoven’s birthplace in Bonn, Germany.

Schiedermair, who made his debut at a sold-out Berlin Philharmonic Hall, learned from some of the best and has been developing his unique blend of virtuosity and insight in concerts, recitals and orchestral performances world wide for more than 30 years. He comes from a family of scholars with musical roots going back to the 18th century and grew up playing chamber music with his father at the cello. His great-grandfather, himself a pianist and composer, was one of the leading musicologists of his day. He published the first complete edition of Mozart’s letters and founded the Beethoven Archive in Germany, the leading research centre for Beethoven.

Valentin Schiedermair received a classical education in Heidelberg where he studied at the music academy with Paul Dan and won first prize in a piano competition. Another prize in Lugano followed, and he took lessons with the Chopin prize-winner Halina Czerny-Stefanska and her Polish husband Ludwig Stefanski. Aged 20 he won a further prize in Barcelona and was chosen as one of two German students in the performing arts to continue his studies in New York with scholarships from the Annette Kade Foundation and the Fulbright Commission.

In New York Schiedermair found a stimulating mix of teachers. He heard Horowitz play in Carnegie Hall and took lessons with Gary Graffman, Horowitz’s favourite pupil, who taught him much of the core classical and Romantic repertoire. He continued his studies at the Vienna Music Academy under Hans Kann, then in London with Peter Wallfisch at the Royal College of Music. Master classes with virtuosos Shura Cherkassky, Bruno Leonardo Gelber, Mieczyslaw Horszowski and many others completed his studies. Not surprisingly, he is now in demand for master classes in Europe and Asia where he passes on the musical tradition he experienced first-hand. Master classes have taken place at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore, Shenzhen University in China, the National Chiayi University in Taiwan, the Chinese Culture University, Shih Chien University and Aletheia University in Taipei as well as the Mannheim Music Academy in Germany and the Guildhall School of Music in London.

Since his first radio recording aged 16 Schiedermair has developed a large repertoire and his concert career has taken him all over the world. He is a frequent guest at international festivals and has given live and recorded recitals for radio. His CDs have won him many friends in Asia, where he tours regularly.

Valentin Schiedermair also composes and teaches composition. He grew up in a family with a close affinity to the music of Mozart, Beethoven and the romantic composers. While his style is essentially intimate and lyrical, his playing conveys passion and drama in equal measure. He enjoys researching the historical and biographical background to the music he plays to get as close to it as possible – and to share this enjoyment with his audience.