From Instant Gratification to Inspiration: We’ve got it all!
February nuggets to excite, entertain and intrigue you
Dear friends of PPI,
You are always on our minds, and we sincerely hope our tidbits of insight, inspiration and perspective trigger your brains’ instant reward systems (“Yay! Mail from PPI!”) while also promoting your well-being by leading you to more delayed enjoyment (planning to attend a concert, listening to a recording, sitting down at the piano yourself!). PPI exists for you and because of you.
Sometimes a single quote can change your day, sometimes you need a few hours away from the daily grind to feel your perspective shift. In order of impact-to-effort (translation: requiring you to get up from the couch or not), here’s what’s occupying our thoughts and expanding our minds this week:
An amazing new recording! On Friday 13 February, our beloved curator Boris Giltburg released a brand-new album of Rachmaninoff’s early piano works. Immediately labeled “unmissable” by Gramophone Magazine, we highly recommend you add this recording to your playlist. You can access it on various streaming platforms and learn more on Boris’s website.
A PPI alumna is retiring from the concert stage. Early in January, one of the international piano world’s most revered performers, Dame Imogen Cooper, announced that she’ll undertake a thirteen-month farewell tour, before stepping away from the concert platform in February 2027. Dame Imogen, who last played in Portland in July 2022, speaks about her extraordinary career and her superb catalogue of recordings in this absolutely delightful conversation with Gramophone editor Martin Cullingford. I listened to the podcast while out on a walk and can assure you that nothing shifts a mood like this uncannily gracious virtuosa of the piano!
Image credit: Sim Canetty-Clarke
Filippo Gorini will be in Portland for the entire month of March! Our sixth artist in our 25-26 “Timeless” recital series, already a Portland favorite, Filippo Gorini, will be here for the whole month of March, with his big Lincoln Hall recital on the 22nd. This long residency, a first for PPI, is because, joining Hong Kong, Vienna and Cape Town, we are the fourth metropolis included on his monumental “Sonata for 7 Cities” project. We are taking him everywhere for myriad musical offerings. Get your tickets for the 22nd here and take a look at his remarkable calendar for many more Filippo options!
April is around the corner – and Piano Beach is beckoning! Have you bought tickets to our annual fundraising gala yet? Now’s the time! Don your favorite sundress, board shorts or Aloha shirt, grab some friends and come back to the keys! We’ll have fabulous music from Portland’s incomparable musical treasure, Darrell Grant, a scrumptious brunch, and sunny vibes all around. Put April 12th in your calendar and start looking forward to celebrating and supporting PPI in an exceptionally fun way.
Lastly – a fabulous quote in the program book of a sister organization! Reading what internationally renowned ballerina Sofiane Sylve said about the relevance of ballet in 2026 utterly translates to our beliefs about classical piano! (You can read the full interview here):
“Storytelling is at the heart of why people choose to come to the theater. In a world of instant entertainment, the performing arts offer something irreplaceable: a shared, immersive experience that cannot be replicated on the screen.(…) It endures not as nostalgia, but as a reminder of what is possible when an art form fully commits to excellence, tradition, and imagination.”