Chicago Duo Piano Festival Sets 27th Season

The Music Institute of Chicago presents its 27th annual Chicago Duo Piano Festival July 10-19. In addition to offering students coaching, lectures, master classes, and recitals, the Festival includes five public events at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, in Evanston, featuring guest duo Chie Tsuyuki and Michael Rosenboom, Festival Founders/Directors Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem, and Music Institute piano faculty, all performing duo piano repertoire.

Public performances
Gala Opening Concert-Friday, July 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Duo Piano Festival Founders/Directors and Music Institute piano duo in residence Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem perform a program including Debussy's own transcription of his work La Mer for piano, four hands.

FREE Faculty Recital-Sunday, July 12 at 2 p.m.
Music Institute piano faculty members perform music from Disney's animated classic Fantasia, including duo piano arrangements of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony, Dukas's Sorcerer's Apprentice, Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals, Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite.

Faculty Extravaganza Concert-Tuesday, July 14 at 7:30 p.m.
In this popular event, members of the Music Institute and Chicago Duo Piano Festival performance faculty perform a mixed program of duo piano favorites, including Mozart, Schubert, Bizet, Messiaen, and more.

Performers in the July 12 and 14 faculty concerts include Elaine Felder and Milana Pavchinskaya, Irene Faliks and Maya Brodotskaya, Mio Isoda and Matthew Hagle, Grace Juang, Katherine Lee and Gregory Shifrin, Alexander Djordjevic and Brenda Huang, Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem, Sung Hoon Mo and Inah Chiu, and others.

Guest Recital: Chie Tsuyuki and Michael Rosenboom-Friday, July 17 at 7:30 p.m.
This award-winning Japanese-German piano duo perform standard repertoire for four hands and two pianos, with a special focus on creating their own arrangements, transcribing works from different eras and genres. For the Chicago Duo Piano Festival, they perform their own arrangement of Franz Liszt's Totentanz for piano, four hands.

FREE Master Class-Saturday, July 18 at 10 a.m.
Guest duo Chie Tsuyuki and Michael Rosenboom lead a master class.

All concerts take place at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston. Except where noted, tickets are $30 for adults, $20 for seniors, and $10 for students and are available at brownpapertickets.com/event/1476326 or 800.838.3006.

Chicago Duo Piano Festival
Called a "duo piano mecca" by Pioneer Press, the Chicago Duo Piano Festival was founded in 1988 by Music Institute of Chicago faculty members Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem. Its mission is to foster a deeper interest in the repertoire, performance, and teaching of music for piano, four hands and two pianos, in a fun and supportive atmosphere. The Festival offers opportunities to piano students age eight through adult through a winter mini-festival, a summer festival and periodic competitions, master classes, and workshops.

Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem
Chicago Duo Piano Festival Founders and Directors Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem, artists in residence and faculty members at the Music Institute, enjoy an international career as proponents of music for both piano duet and two keyboards. The duo has appeared with orchestras internationally, including the Chicago Philharmonic and the Vienna Tonkünstler. They have performed in recitals throughout the U.S. and Europe. Recent concerts include a 25th anniversary celebration concert at Merkin Hall in New York, an appearance at the Gina Bachauer Festival in Salt Lake City, and two recitals in Odessa, Ukraine. Aebersold and Neiweem have commissioned significant new works for the piano duo, including pieces by Joseph Turrin and Patrick Byers. The duo's CDs on the Summit label include Four Hand Reflections and music of Brahms and Schubert.

Music Institute of Chicago
The Music Institute of Chicago, which has a mission to provide the foundation for a lifelong engagement with music, is dedicated to transforming lives through music education. Founded in 1931, the Music Institute has grown to become one of the largest and most respected community music schools in the nation. Offering musical excellence built on the strength of its distinguished faculty, commitment to quality, and breadth of programs and services, the Music Institute is a member of the National Guild for Community Arts Education and accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Pre-collegiate Arts Schools (ACCPAS). Each year, the Music Institute's teachers and arts therapists reach thousands of students and clients of all ages and levels of experience. Music Institute locations include Chicago, Evanston, Winnetka, Lincolnshire, Lake Forest, and Downers Grove. In addition, the Music Institute is proud of its longstanding partnership with the Chicago Public Schools through its Arts Link program. The Music Institute offers lessons and classes, creative arts therapy, and concerts through its Community School, Academy, Institute for Therapy through the Arts (ITA), and Nichols Concert Hall.

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