The Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards and the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies proudly announce Forte|Piano 2025: Crafting Soundscapes: A Festival Celebrating Pianos in History and History in Pianos, to be held on August 5-10, 2025 at Cornell University.
Forte|Piano 2025: a gathering spot where those interested in historical pianos can celebrate the past accompishments and current vitality of the field and cultivate spaces for new ideas to blossom. Drawing on Cornell’s renowned collection of historical pianos, we will enjoy a richly varied, meaty program including:
- A concert of Schubert lieder and Romantic cello works featuring acclaimed artists Yi-heng Yang, Karim Sulayman, Lambert Orkis, and David Hardy
- An exploration of Chopin and the French piano from the perspectives of five performer-scholars individually and as a panel
- A venue for recognizing emerging talent, with over a dozen rising artists and scholars presenting their latest work
- An investigation of Beethoven's Grande Fugue, Op. 133, culminating in a performance of Beethoven's 4-hand arrangement for fortepiano
- A session on teaching fortepiano as a stimulus to creative performance, with interaction among three eminent instructors and their students
- Lectures by eminent scholars including Mark Kroll on Hummel’s Piano Method, Maria Rose on Montgeroult’s Cours Complet, and Neal Zaslaw on Könnicke’s 31-note chromatic fortepiano
- New compositions for fortepiano by Chenghao Michalis Li and Carson Cooman
- Lecture-recitals on a panoply of subjects including nineteenth-century New Orleanian composers; the music salon of the Razoumovsky family as a crossroads of eastern and western Europe; the early nineteenth-century practice of piano arrangement; the clavecin roïal and the aesthetics of timbre; “soft pedals” and quiet dynamics in Schubert’s piano sonatas; and many others
- A re-creation of a late 18th- / early 19th-century salon as an incubator for untold stories of keyboard culture
- Multiple sessions led by restorers, builders, and curators addressing collections, case studies, and including an international Zoom panel with eminent European builders and curators, Kerstin Schwartz and Catalina Vicens
- A chamber concert of works by composers Jane Mary Guest, Emilie Mayer, and Louise Farrenc
- Frequent opportunities for discussion of topics of interest over tea in an informal setting
… and much more!
Coming soon to this website: full details of the program schedule, presenter bios, registration form, and much additional information. Don’t miss the fortepiano event of the year — plan to join us at Cornell this August 5-10!