7th SFIPF – Asiya Korepanova – Transformations – Sunday, August 25 at 4 pm
7th Annual San Francisco International Piano Festival
Transformations
Asiya Korepanova, piano
Frédéric Chopin Introduction et Polonaise brillante, Op. 3
Gabriel Fauré Élégie
Amy Beach Extase, Op. 21, No. 2
Alban Berg Liebesode from Seiben frühe Lieder
Peter Tchaikovsky If only I had known, Op. 47, No. 1
César Franck Le mariage des roses
Modest Mussorgsky Songs and Dances of Death
Sergei Rachmaninoff Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 19
The San Francisco International Piano Festival is proud to present pianist and composer Asiya Korepanova in her San Francisco debut recital. Ms. Korepanova begins with a nod to our featured composer, Gabriel Fauré, before launching into a diverse array of virtuosic and emotionally captivating music, all in her own transcriptions.
The only pianist in the world who performed the complete Rachmaninoff solo piano works within the composer’s 150th-anniversary year in 2023, Asiya Korepanova is a pianistic powerhouse hailed as a “tremendously gifted pianist who exhibits a singular affinity for Rachmaninoff’s Russian romantic idiom and possesses the blazing technique to fully realize his distinctive scores” (South Florida Classical Review), who is also highly recognized as a composer, visual artist, and poet. A herald of an enormous repertoire encompassing over 60 piano concertos and solo works ranging from early Baroque period to music of living composers, Asiya is a quintessential completist. She finds unique joy in performing complete collections of works such as Liszt’s 24 Etudes or the entire Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach. Her emotionally charged and colorfully nuanced performances have gained her the admiration of audiences and resulted in many repeat engagements.
Asiya, a pianist and composer, draws her musical inspiration from the legacy of Dmitry Shostakovich, having studied composition under his direct disciple, Albert Leman. She is the author of original works in multiple genres and instrumentations. Her historic solo piano transcriptions of Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Manfred’ Symphony, and Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death have placed her among today’s formidable transcribers. The most recent composition events include the world premiere recording of Asiya’s concerto for alto saxophone and piano, Poéme, performed by Thomas Giles and Liana Pailodze Harron; the publication of her transcription of Rachmaninoff’s cello sonata; the premiere of her piano quintet I marvel at the sky, commissioned by the Third Dimension Music Festival; and the premiere of Con Brio for two pianos, performed with her duo partner Ilya Kazantsev as a part of the Dranoff Two Piano Foundation series.
The San Francisco International Piano Festival is supported, in part, by a grant from the Ross McKee Foundation.
The Festival wishes to thank the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the American Liszt Society for its generous sponsorship of this concert.