9th Annual San Francisco International Piano Festival
Solo Recital Series: Alexandre Dossin, piano
American piano music from the last 100 years
Leonard Bernstein selections from Thirteen Anniversaries
Robert Pollock 9 Piano Miniatures
George Walker Prelude and Caprice
George Walker Variations on a Kentucky Folk Song
George Walker Guido’s Hand No. 4
George Walker Piano Sonata No. 5
Heiter Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4
George Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
The San Francisco International Piano Festival is proud to present pianist Alexandre Dossin in this solo recital and festival debut. Considered by Martha Argerich an “extraordinary musician” and by the international critics a “phenomenon” and “a master of contrasts,” Steinway Artist Alexandre Dossin keeps an active performing, recording, and teaching career. Alexandre Dossin is Professor of Piano and Chair of Keyboard at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance. Originally from Brazil, Alexandre Dossin is a graduate from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Russia) and holds a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin (USA).
Mr. Dossin has championed both classic and contemporary composers through performance, recording, and preparation of scores for Schirmer Performance Editions. The recital will include music by George Walker, a composer with whom Mr. Dossin has special affinity, having recorded his complete works for piano on the Naxos label.
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear these vital musical voices in masterful performances!
The San Francisco International Piano Festival is supported in part by a grant from the Ross McKee Foundation.
About Robert Pollock’s ‘Miniatures’
During our lives we hear and sing the familiar and memorable “happy birthday” song dozens if not hundreds of times. The humorous Greeting Prelude (1955) by Igor Stravinsky, for Pierre Monteux’s 80th birthday, showed us how the birthday song could refreshingly be fractured nearly beyond recognition through the use of serial, orchestral, and canonic techniques.
In this spirit, over the past 40 years I have composed nearly 100 birthday pieces for family and friends. The age of the recipient usually determined the metronomic tempo as well as the number of beats, and the number of notes. With those restraints in place, I was able to pour my feelings of love for the dedicatee into the predetermined form with an ear to the ubiquitous birthday tune.
One exception is “88” that helped to inaugurate a newly acquired Steinway concert grand piano at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Here each of the 88 keys of the piano was used just once.
It was very gratifying to give my wife, Klazine, daughter, Esther, grand daughters, Celeste and Beatrice, and friends, George Walker, and Alex Dossin’s wife, Maria, an individualized, sometimes humorous musical birthday gift different from the traditional birthday tune or a saccharine, commercial birthday card. I am grateful to Alex for his interest in these very personal miniatures.
(note by Robert Pollock, August 23, 2026)
About the artist
A prizewinner in several international piano competitions, Alexandre Dossin received the First Prize and the Special Prize at the 2003 Martha Argerich International Piano Competition in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Other international awards include the Silver Medal and second Honorable Mention in the Maria Callas Grand Prix, and Third Prize and Special Prize in the Mozart International Piano Competition, in addition to several prizes in Brazil.
An active recording artist, he has numerous CDs released with several labels, including 10 CDs with Naxos. Dossin is an editor and recording artist for several Schirmer Performance Editions. Dossin’s edition and recording of complete piano sonatas by W. A. Mozart (2-volume edition and recordings, Schirmer Performance Editions) was released in the fall of 2023. Other recent releases include the complete piano works by George Walker in 2 CDs with Naxos (2024). A performance edition of the same works published by Keiser Southern Music will follow in 2026, in addition to an all-Prokofiev CD with Naxos. Soloist appearances in past seasons include the Eugene Symphony, the Austin Symphony, Porto Alegre Symphony in Brazil, in addition to the West Coast premiere of George Walker’s piano concerto with the University of Oregon Philharmonia. In 2025, he had his Central American debut during the Costa Rica Piano Festival, and in 2026, Dossin returned to Brazil for appearances as a soloist (Khatchaturian’s Piano Concerto) in several states, and as a faculty/artist in the largest musical festival in Latin America (FEMUSC).
Dossin’s work was praised in reviews by Gramophone, Diapason, The Financial Times, Fanfare Magazine, American Record Guide, Clavier, and other international publications. Dossin is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of the Oregon Piano Institute, Vice President of the American Liszt Society, and one of the recipients of the prestigious Faculty Fund for Excellence at the University of Oregon. www.dossin.net
Some of composer/pianist Robert Pollock’s nearly 200 compositions received recent performances in Honolulu, Hawai’i, Seoul, South Korea, Kazan, Russia, Jalapa, Mexico, Berlin, Germany, New York City, and Los Angeles, CA. He is the recipient of the Composers String Quartet Award (first prize), and grants from the NEA, NJSCA, Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund, and Ingram Merrill Foundation. He is a fellow of the MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Millay Art Colony. Several of his works are recorded for CRI, CGNJ, Maui Institute for Modern Music, Furious Artisans, and Union of Composers, Tatarstan, Russia, labels. His works are published by Mobart, E.C.
Schirmer, Veritas Musicae and Rosalime Productions.
As pianist, Pollock has premiered over 100 works and performed solo recitals in Mexico, USA, Russia, Korea, Japan, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, and the Netherlands. He was co-founder of the New York Guild of Composers (1975), founder/director emeritus of the Composers Guild of New Jersey (1980-1998), and founder/director of Ebb & Flow Arts, Inc., in Hawai’i (2000-2025). He has organized over 600 concerts. Pollock received a B. A. in Music from Swarthmore College, a M.F.A. in Musical Composition from Princeton University, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Musical Composition.
