Camerata Pacifica's Beethoven 32 Cycle Continues with Solo Recital by Pianist Gilles Vonsattel, March 20 & 22 at Music Academy of the West

Camerata Pacifica’s “Beethoven 32” initiative, which launched this season, kicks into high gear with a solo piano recital by Principal Piano Gilles Vonsattel devoted exclusively to Beethoven’s piano sonatas. “Beethoven 32” is a momentous three-year Beethoven cycle featuring Vonsattel, “a pianist well worth watching” (The New York Times), performing all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas in a hybrid blend of solo recitals and chamber programs. The recital, which marks the third program – and first solo recital – for “Beethoven 32,” takes place at two Southern California locations – Friday, March 20, 7:00 pm, at Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West; and Sunday, March 22, 2026, 8:00 pm, Zipper Hall, at Zipper Hall in Downtown Los Angeles.

Vonsattel takes centerstage to perform Beethoven’s celebrated Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13 “Pathetique,” and the beautiful and intense Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 1, “Sonata quasi una fantasia.” 

He also interprets Piano Sonata No. 12 in A-flat Major, Op. 26, the third movement of which was played during Beethoven’s own funeral procession, and concludes the program with the tempestuous Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57, “Appassionata.”

Swiss-born American pianist Gilles Vonsattel boasts remarkable versatility and artistic originality. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2016 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, and top prizes in the Naumburg and Geneva competitions, he has graced prestigious stages worldwide, enthralling audiences with recitals and chamber performances, and collaborating with renowned orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic and the Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco symphonies. As a champion of new music, he has premiered compositions by celebrated composers such as Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, Anthony Cheung, and George Benjamin. He is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program and has earned degrees from Columbia University and the Juilliard School. Today, Vonsattel shares his passion for music as a Professor of Piano at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

For tickets ($75) and information, visit www.cameratapacifica.org.