International flavour to next year's Piano Festival

Hebden Bridge Piano Festival - April 26

It may be only December but organisers of Hebden Bridge Piano Festival are already looking ahead to next April’s event which will have a distinctly international flavour. Pianists from Romania, Germany, France and Luxembourg will be lining up with UK-based artists of the highest calibre, according to festival organiser Dave Nelson.

The festival gets underway on Friday, April 26 with a recital by the acclaimed young German virtuoso Mario Häring, runner-up at the Leeds International Piano Competition - probably the oldest and most prestigious piano competition in the world - in September.

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Also headlining the three-day event is the outstanding Luxembourg-based pianist Jean Muller who has performed all over the world, won prizes at all the major European piano competitions and released numerous CDs including the complete cycles of Mozart and Beethoven Sonatas.

Clare Hammond, a firm favourite at the 2015 festival, returns to Hebden Bridge with another outstanding programme. She will also give a masterclass and a recital for families and children.

Also resident in the UK, the eclectic and astounding contemporary music specialist Rolf Hind will present a programme of music by, or in memory of, the great composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies who died in 2016. The festival’s lunchtime recitals provide an opportunity to check out some young, outstanding pianists at the beginning of their careers, and next year sees concerts given by the gifted Romanian pianist Alexandra Vaduva and by 17-year-old runaway winner of this year’s BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, Lauren Zhang.

As usual there’s a solo jazz piano concert, given by the consistently intriguing and innovative Paul Taylor, and, following this year’s highly successful late-night concert, the festival welcomes the young stride, swing and blues pianist, Jean Baptiste Franc.

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The 2019 festival will be launched on Saturday, March 15 at Hebden Bridge Town Hall when tickets, including weekend passes, will go on sale. These will be available from the Town Hall box office and online. Anyone who would like to get involved in the festival should visit hebdenbridgepianofestival.com