An intimate evening of world-class classical piano, drinks, and dessert
You are invited to a private recital by pianist and composer Nicolas Namoradze in our home in New York City. Just last month, Nicolas had a whirlwind European tour, jumping in for Yefim Bronfman for a series of concerts of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Maestro Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Then, with only two days’ notice, he jumped in for a recital in place for Sergei Babayan at the Montréal Bach Festival. Both performances received rave reviews.
Lucky for us, I booked Nicolas months before his stardom on the biggest stages, and we are fortunate to see him performing in such personal quarters. It will be a hard feat to repeat.
Saturday, April 27 — doors open at 7pm — recital starts 7:30pm — optional drinks and dessert reception with the pianist afterwards until about 10:00pm. For photos/videos of previous Lilacs events, see here.
To RSVP, go to the Eventbrite page here. As always, 100% of the proceeds will go to the pianist.
About Nicolas
Pianist and composer Nicolas Namoradze came to international attention in 2018 upon winning the triennial Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, Canada—among the largest prizes in classical music. His recitals around the globe have been met with universal critical praise, and recent album releases have received extraordinary accolades.
Among the most critically acclaimed musicians of his generation, Nicolas was bestowed the 2020 & 2021 Young Pianist Award by the UK Critics’ Circle, which called him “very much more than a top-flight pianist.” Recent critical highlights include rare five-star reviews in The Telegraph and The Guardian, which called his performance at Royal Festival Hall “ideally laconic and debonair, weighty yet exquisite, and exactingly precise in tone and touch.” A 2022 cover feature in International Piano declared his Wigmore Hall debut “astonishing,” concluding that, “with so many talents and interests it is impossible to predict what this young man will go on to do: all we can be sure of is that it will be both original and unexpected.”
Highlights of recent seasons include recitals at Carnegie Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Wigmore Hall, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and Boston’s Gardner Museum; appearances at Tanglewood, Banff, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Telavi Music Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Portland Piano International, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, and more; and performances with orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, with conductors such as Iván Fischer, Karina Canellakis, Hans Graf, John Axelrod, Ken-David Masur, Finnegan Downie-Dear and Daniele Rustioni.
In tandem with his musical career, Nicolas is actively engaged in various music-related fields in the cognitive sciences. His doctoral dissertation at the CUNY Graduate Center developed mathematical models for aspects of musical perception. He holds a postgraduate degree in neuropsychology from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College, London, where his research interests included the effects of mental practice and mindfulness on musical performance.
Nicolas was born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1992 and grew up in Budapest, Hungary. After completing his undergraduate in Budapest, Vienna and Florence, he moved to New York for his master’s at The Juilliard School and his doctorate at the CUNY Graduate Center. His teachers and mentors have included Emanuel Ax, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Zoltán Kocsis, Matti Raekallio, András Schiff and Eliso Virsaladze in piano, and John Corigliano in composition.
The program
J.S. Bach – Contrapunctus VI from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
A. Scriabin – Piano Sonata No. 10, Op. 70
L. Beethoven – Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106 (“Hammerklavier”)