What are our artists up to now?
When you picked up PPI’s season brochure last summer, you may have been completely unfamiliar with the majority of the names on the program. Angela Hewitt and Ilya Yakushev, surely those rang bells, but for the other recitals you probably just trusted our judgment blindly and came to support us anyway. We’re so very grateful that you did. After attending the performances and reading our season recap, we hope you feel grateful to your past self, too!
In alignment with PPI’s passionate mission to present the finest pianists of today and tomorrow (my emphasis) and in always striving to inspire, we would love to share with you some updates on the extraordinary human beings who graced our stage during the past season. We carefully chose them because we thought they were all extraordinary – in both their craftsmanship and their stewardship of music. As you can tell from the nuggets of news we collected, we are not the only ones thinking that!
Tetiana Shafran
Tetiana Shafran (who still resides primarily in the Ukraine) just spent two weeks on Holland America Lines’ Oosterdam, delighting her audiences with daily recitals that included many of the pieces she played for us. If you follow her on Instagram, you may have seen her posts – but if you don’t, trust me if I say that a cruise between Florida and Spain featuring daily injections of classical piano looks as amazing as it sounds!
Duo Amal
It’s all to easy to forget that Duo Amal isn’t a single organism – although they certainly sound as seamlessly coordinated as one body with four arms! Apart from keeping up a demanding concert schedule together, Yaron Kohlberg and Bishara Haroni also enjoy varied and thriving individual careers. This past March, Bishara performed chamber music at the Felicja Blumental Music Center in Tel Aviv, and in April, Yaron went on a national tour of South Africa, performing Prokofiev’s 3rd Piano Concerto with the Cape Town Philharmonic. Coming up on May 17 & 18, Yaron will once again be in Portland, this time to play the same Prokofiev with our very own Orchestra Nova. If my Googling can be trusted, these two men never sleep, because they simply have so many fascinating projects running simultaneously! Keep an eye out for a forthcoming short documentary, aptly named Amal/Hope, and, if you’re a fan of silent film, kick your (past) self for not being in Thailand last June, when Bishara (in partnership with his wife, violinist Adi Haroni) played live background music to Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid! Maybe that’s something we should bring to Portland!?
Clayton Stephenson
We’ve sung Clayton Stephenson’s praises to high heavens – and rightly so. On April 2nd, this brilliant young pianist was awarded the Sphinx Organization’s Medal of Excellence, honoring him for his artistic excellence, outstanding work ethic, spirit of determination, and his ongoing commitment to leadership in Black and Latino communities. To me, the fact that he has a Facebook post of a piece of sheet music with a ladybug sitting on it, is proof enough that Clayton is a Mensch, not just a virtuoso! He will play again in Oregon next season for beloved sister organization, Corvallis-OSU Piano International, May 2, 2026.
Rodolfo Leone
Rodolfo Leone isn’t the boastful, self-promoting sort – and if stalking him on social media was the only way to track him, you’d quickly note that, although he is often glowingly and appreciatively mentioned by others, he hardly ever posts anything himself. I was lucky to catch him on the phone at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, where, amid the standard end-of-year faculty frenzy, he was happy to chat about his current projects. He just came back from Montana, where he closed out the Helena Symphony’s 70th season with Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto. He’s preparing for a recital in Los Angeles in October, and will play with the Adrian Symphony in Michigan in November, and, if that’s not already plenty, adding the last touches to a recording of Ravel and Prokofiev piano concertos, out later this year. Clearly, with Mr. Leone, it is not about holding up a front or presenting an image. He simply lives by his talent. (Also, if you love discovering under-recorded repertoire, take note of his two Clementi albums on iTunes and Spotify. “Piano Jewels” indeed!)