33rd Chicago Duo Piano Festival to Present Livestreamed Performances in July

The Music Institute of Chicago has announced that its 33rd annual Chicago Duo Piano Festival will take place July 9-18, featuring a combination of in-person and online coaching and performances by renowned piano duos. The concerts, which will be livestreamed, take place Friday, July 9 and 16 at 7:30 p.m., and a student recital takes place Sunday, July 18 at 2 p.m. Registration for the educational component is available at musicinst.org/cdpf-summer-festival; registration deadline is June 5.

Directed by Festival Co-Founders and Artistic Directors Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem and Music Institute piano faculty Katherine Lee, the Festival will observe all pandemic protocols related to masking and physical distancing for in-person coaching and rehearsals, which will be combined with online coaching.

The July 9 Gala Opening Concert features Aebersold and Neiweem, who are celebrating 40 years as a piano duo. They will perform the premiere of "Cries and Whispers" by Robert Chumbley, co-commissioned by the Chicago Duo Piano Festival and the Dranoff Foundation; Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from Symphony No. 9, arranged by Franz Liszt; and works by Brahms and Ravel.

The July 16 concert features Music Institute piano faculty performing a mixed program of music for piano duo. Performers include Matthew Hagle and Mio Isoda, Xiaomin Liang and Jue He, Inah Chiu and Sung Hoon Mo, Louise Chan and Susan Tang, and others to be announced at a later date.

Chicago Duo Piano Festival concerts take place Friday, July 9 and 16 at 7:30 p.m.;
the student recital takes place Sunday, July 18 at 2 p.m.
All performances are free and will be livestreamed from
Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston.
To register for educational programs or the concert streams, visit chicagoduopianofestival.org.

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 Washington Post has described them as "consummate practitioners of pianism, in complete sympathy with and understanding of each other," and Gramophone Magazine called their Schubert recordings "utterly charming." 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. Concerts include a 25th anniversary celebration concert at Merkin Hall in New York, an appearance at the Gina Bachauer Festival in Salt Lake City, two recitals in Odessa, Ukraine, and more than 200 recitals in Austria and Italy. 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. They are frequent performers on WFMT 98.7FM and are founders of the Chicago International Duo Piano Competition.

Founded in 1988, the Chicago Duo Piano Festival has as its mission 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 Chicago Duo Piano Festival presents an annual summer festival and winter mini-fest, youth and adult competitions, master classes, and concerts featuring national and international guest piano duos. The festival has hosted many of the world's most formidable piano duos, including the Paratore brothers, Hans-Peter and Volker Stenzl, Tal and Groethuysen, the Contiguglia brothers, and Anderson and Roe.