Haskell Small Brings CELEBRATION OF HEALING Concert Tour to Weill Recital Hall

Pianist Haskell Small has toured key cities in US in the 2023-24 season with his program Celebration of Healing, performing Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. His next stop will be at Weill Recital Hall located in the celebrated Carnegie Hall in New York City on June 5.

In 2021, Composer and Pianist Haskell Small suffered a debilitating stroke that rendered his left hand and foot paralyzed. At the time, Small feared his accomplished professional career would come to an end. Three years later, he is not only playing piano again (with both hands!) but has embarked on a nationwide Celebration of Healing tour that launched in his hometown of Washington, DC in September 2023. He will be the subject of a documentary film entitled Small Steps directed by Christopher McGuinness to be released later this year. 

Wednesday, June 5, 2024, 8PM
Weill Recital Hall: Carnegie Hall
154 W 57th St, New York, NY 

Tickets are $25 and are available at www.carnegiehall.org, the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, or by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800. Carnegie Hall is located at 881 Seventh Avenue in New York City.

More information available at www.haskellsmall.com

As captured in The Washington Post, Small used his painstaking journey of rehabilitation as a creative muse. Unwilling to stay away from music, he began arranging and performing classical masterworks for his right hand alone, as well as writing and performing a new composition, Diary of a Stroke: The Adventures of Herb and Pete (playful nicknames Small gave to his paralyzed hand and foot). Today, Small’s rehabilitation has further progressed and he has returned to playing with full use of both hands. Small’s Celebration of Healing Tour will not only mark his full recovery, but fulfill his life-long dream of performing Beethoven’s immensely difficult and sublime Diabelli Variations. 

“To go from thinking my career might be over, to touring the country with one of the most demanding and sublime works in the repertoire has become a life-saving journey,” says Small. “I’m hoping that my story can resonate with others who have suffered setbacks and offer inspiration that you should never give up on your dreams. Sometimes what seems like a disaster can in fact be an opportunity to grow and challenge yourself in a whole new way.”

Adding to Haskell's challenges and augmenting his "celebration of healing," this spring (2024) he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, fortunately caught early and curable with a big surgery called a 'Whipple procedure' that he is presently recovering from.

Haskell Small has been critically praised for the exquisite blend of sound and silence in his compositions and for his prodigious technique and subtle touch at the piano. His discography includes over a dozen releases of his own compositions as well as Bach, Mompou, Gershwin and more on the MSR, Naxos, Centaur and 4Tay labels. On national and international tours he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts, and Spoleto USA, among others, and he has received commissions from the Washington Ballet, Georgetown Symphony, Three Rivers Piano Competition, and more. He studied piano with Leon Fleisher and William Masselos and composition with Vincent Persichetti, and is on the faculty of the Washington Conservatory of Music. For more about Haskell Small, you can visit his website here. (www.haskellsmall.com)