Looking backwards, seeing greatness: PPI’s visionary artistic instinct over the decades (Part 1)
Dear friends of PPI,
One of my favorite documents in all of PPI’s enormous electronic archive is the detailed spreadsheet chronicling exactly who graced our stage each season and a list of the repertory they played. As we’re ramping up towards our 49th season, I thought you might enjoy gazing backwards with me, specifically to see what we were up to 40, 30, 20 and 10 years ago – and where those artists are today. Sadly, some passed away, but the vast majority of them are either still international superstars or respected, revered names as piano pedagogues or recording artists. Not to boast or anything, but our artistic directors all clearly possessed visionary instinct for lasting greatness, for reading through the list below gives one goosebumps. This is not the revered Hauschronik of the Vienna Musikverein, or London’s Wigmore Hall Archive. This is our Portland Piano International’s proud history – and if you’re part of our audience, you’re part of this stunning narrative. Although I’d love to direct you to detailed biographical updates and rare recordings for each and every performer, I’ve already fallen down a rabbit hole from whence I’m struggling to emerge! Hope by sharing one interesting link per artist and splitting the story into two parts – Seasons 1986/1987 and 1996/1997 this week, and Seasons 2006/2007 and 2016/2017 next – you’ll be pulled à la Alice in Wonderland into your own private listening dreamscape!
40 years ago, for Season 86-87, we featured:
Leon Bates (American)– who toured the world for 50 years, championing Black composers before passing away from Parkinson’s disease in 2025.
Philippe Bianconi (French) – who maintains a vibrant global touring and recording schedule while serving on elite international competition juries.
Panayis Lyras (Greek-American) – who parlayed his 1981 Van Cliburn Silver Medal into a stellar orchestral and decades-long university teaching career at Michigan State University’s College of Music. He passed away in June 2025.
Nikita Magaloff (Georgian-Russian) – a legendary master who became the first to record Chopin’s complete solo works and trained titans like Martha Argerich.
Cecile Ousset (French) – who achieved a towering 2,000-concert career before dedicating her immense expertise entirely to masterclasses across Europe.
György Sebők (Hungarian-American) – who eschewed solo fame to become a profoundly revered chamber musician and legendary philosopher of the keyboard.
30 years ago, for Season 96-97, we featured:
Boris Berman (Russian) – who still balances active international festival performances with his role as the head of the Yale School of Music piano faculty.
Anton Kuerti (Austrian-Canadian) – who retired to a quiet life in Canada following a 2013 on-stage stroke, leaving a massive recorded legacy.
Stephen Prutsman (American) – who expanded his virtuosity into multi-genre composition and acclaimed collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma and the Kronos Quartet.
Charles Rosen (American) – who performed with 20th-century masters and wrote foundational musicology texts that remain required conservatory reading today.
Yuri Rozum (Russian) – who was named a People’s Artist of Russia in 2001 and now splits his time between orchestral performances and funding talented youth.
Sir Andras Schiff (Hungarian-British) – who remains a globally revered, politically outspoken titan of the stage who is currently touring Bach’s finest works.
Are you impressed yet? Do you (like me) wish you had a thousand hours to invest in online listening and researching, and then a thousand more to attend live concerts all over the globe? How about starting with a subscription to PPI’s Season 2026/2026, right here in Portland? Ten years from now, I’ll guarantee you that all of those artists will still be making extraordinary music and changing the world one piano lover at a time!