9th Annual San Francisco International Piano Festival

TNTeague Duo: Steelpan & Piano Masterworks

Liam Teague, steelpan
Jaden Teague-Núñez, steelpan & piano

The festival welcomes father and son duo Liam Teague and Jaden Teague-Núñez in their festival debut, featuring the endlessly varied and colorful music for steelpan and piano. Active in performance, composition, and education, Liam Teague is renowned as a virtuoso leader on his instrument. Professor of Music and Director of Steelpan Studies at Northern Illinois University, Mr. Teague directs the internationally acclaimed NIU Steelband. Rising star Jaden Teague-Núñez has already established himself as a prominent voice in the music world through his performances with the Chicago Symphony, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and his solo and duo performances broadcast internationally.

The San Francisco International Piano Festival is supported in part by a grant from the Ross McKee Foundation.

About the artists

Liam Teague is Professor of Music and Director of Steelpan Studies at Northern Illinois University (NIU) and leads the renowned NIU Steelband. He is the recipient of an NIU Board of Trustees Professorship Award (2022); Presidential Research, Scholarship and Artistry Professor Award (2018); and an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award (2023).

Hailed as the “Paganini of the Steelpan”, he has received several honors from Trinidad and Tobago, his country of birth, including the Hummingbird National Award (Silver), the Ansa McAl Caribbean Award for Excellence, and the Keys to the City of San Fernando.  In 2024, the Fox Valley Orchestra honored Teague with its Champion of the Arts award.

As a soloist, Teague has performed with diverse ensembles such as: National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, Czech National Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Panama National Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Vermeer String Quartet, Avalon String Quartet, Hannaford Street Silver Brass Ensemble, River City Brass Band, Nexus, Dartmouth Wind Ensemble, Indiana University Symphonic Band, and the BpTT Renegades Steel Orchestra. Teague has also collaborated with Grammy-Award winning musicians Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Samuels, Zakir Hussain and Dame Evelyn Glennie, and regularly concertizes with the steelpan and harp duo Pangelic, which he founded with Faye Seeman.  Liam has also appeared at several Percussive Arts Society International Conventions and international educational institutions.

Many of his compositions and arrangements are published with Panademy, MaumauMusic, RamajayMusic, and Wendeln Music Works. Teague has commissioned several outstanding composers to write for the steelpan; these include Michael Colgrass, Jan Bach, Libby Larsen, Andy Akiho, Deborah Fisher Teason, Joey Sellers, Ben Wahlund, Erik Ross, Kevin Bobo, David Gordon, Robert Chappell, Geof Bradfield, Casey Cangelosi, Gustavo Leone, Victor Provost, Etienne Charles, James Gourlay, and Reggie Thomas.

He is also the author of a steelpan method for beginners published by the Hal Leonard Corporation and has created arrangements for Panorama -the most celebrated steelband competition in the world. Teague has many recordings to his credit including Hands Like Lightning, Open Window, and Sorcerer.

Jaden Teague-Núñez is 18 years old and was born in Panama City, Panama. The son of Trinidadian and Panamanian parents, he began studying steelpan and piano at age 8 and 10, respectively.

He became the first steelpan soloist in the world to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra after winning the CSO’s Crain-Maling Foundation Young Artists Competition in 2024. In 2025, he was named YoungArts Winner with Distinction (classical percussion) by the National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists. His work has been covered by Chicago’s WGN-Television and in several newspapers which include the Trinidad Newsday and The Guardian.

Jaden has guested with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Fox Valley Orchestra, Wheaton Municipal Band, and the Northern Illinois University Steelband, and he has performed for the Nassau Music Society in the Bahamas and the 50th anniversary of Crop Over in Barbados. Teague-Núñez has played at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention and at the 2023 Tuba Bach Festival and concertizes with his father Liam Teague as the duo TNTeague. He has also collaborated with virtuoso pianist Jodie Desalvo on her Piano Talks concert series. Jaden also practices mixed martial arts at United Elite MMA.

9th Annual San Francisco International Piano Festival

Festival Finale: Symphonic Dances

Elizabeth Dorman, piano (Festival debut)
Jeffrey LaDeur, piano
Liam Teague, steelpan
Jaden Teague-Núñez, steelpan & piano

George Gershwin Cuban Overture for 2 pianos
Kevin Bobo Rhapsody in Steel
Liam Teague A Visit to Hell
Sergei Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances for 2 pianos

The festival concludes its kaleidoscopic journey with a program of dazzling musical fireworks. Beginning with Gershwin’s irresistible Cuban Overture for two pianos, the program includes performances from Liam Teague and Jaden Teague-Núnez that showcase the versatility and virtuosity of the steelpan. The festival will close with Rachmaninoff’s final masterpiece, the Symphonic Dances (1940). Written while Rachmaninoff was living in the United States, it would prove to be his last major composition. This two-piano score was given its private premiere with the composer and Vladimir Horowitz in Beverly Hills in August of 1942. Originally subtitled Noon, Twilight, and Midnight, the three movements of this expansive work weave together driving rhythms of city life, endlessly beautiful melodies, shadowy chromaticism, and allusions to Rachmaninoff’s own first symphony with the Dies Irae chant that haunted his music throughout his life.

The festival is proud to welcome Elizabeth Dorman to the stage in her festival debut. A San Francisco native, Ms. Dorman has performed nationally and abroad to great acclaim, including appearances with the Leipzig Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, as keyboardist with the San Francisco Symphony, and as recitalist and chamber musician at prominent venues including Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, and the Banff Centre. Dorman is joined by founder and artistic director Jeffrey LaDeur, pianist and educator known for his musical leadership and compelling performance style. Don’t miss this thrilling conclusion to the season!

The San Francisco International Piano Festival is supported in part by a grant from the Ross McKee Foundation.

About the artists

Praised by Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle for her “elegance and verve,” pianist Elizabeth Dorman enjoys performing music both new and old as a soloist and chamber musician. A prizewinner of the 2018 Leipzig International Bach Competition and the 2017 Pro Musicis Father Merlet Award, Elizabeth has been widely recognized as a leading performer for her inquisitive interpretations of Bach’s music on the modern piano. Elizabeth has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Louisville Orchestra, the Leipzig Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the California Symphony, the Vallejo Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Folsom Lake Symphony, the Stanford Summer Symphony, Symphony Parnassus, as a soloist for interdisciplinary projects at New World Symphony, and she can be heard regularly performing as guest Keyboard at the San Francisco Symphony. She has recorded for Navona and Delos records, including as a soloist with Santa Rosa Symphony. Elizabeth was awarded a Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University where she studied with Gilbert Kalish.

Jeffrey LaDeur is known for his rare blend of insight, spontaneity, and approachable, communicative stage presence. Clic Musique Magazine (France) lauded “… an irreproachable legato, a beautiful palette of nuances, and an always well-balanced sound.” Having inherited a rich tradition of pianism and interpretation from Annie Sherter, student of Vlado Perlemuter and Alfred Cortot, LaDeur has established himself as a compelling exponent of classic and new repertoire. In March of 2018, LaDeur made his solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall on the centennial of Claude Debussy’s death. He appears regularly with orchestra and maintains a repertoire of over 40 concerti. LaDeur is the founder and artistic director of the San Francisco International Piano Festival and president of the American Liszt Society, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter.

2023-2024 season highlights include engagements at the International Piano Series, College of Charleston, Mendocino Music Festival Piano Series, Rossmoor Chamber Music Society, and the Vallejo Symphony led by Marc Taddei. LaDeur’s most recent solo recording features music of Liszt and was released by Music & Arts in April of 2022. Critic Henry Fogel wrote, “The beauty of his coloration, the rightness of his phrasing, and his sensitive dynamic shaping, all draw the listener into Liszt’s world.” A chamber musician of distinction, Jeffrey’s collaboration with mezzo soprano Kindra Scharich has produced To My Distant Beloved, an album exploring the connections between Beethoven and Schumann through cycles in song and solo piano works. LaDeur has collaborated with distinguished artists such as Robert Mann, Bonnie Hampton, Ian Swensen, Axel Strauss, Geoff Nuttall, and the Alexander String Quartet.

An active educator, Jeffrey offers masterclasses frequently as guest artist in universities throughout the United States and coaches gifted pre-college piano and string ensembles at Young Chamber Musicians in Burlingame, California. LaDeur holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and San Francisco Conservatory of Music in piano performance and chamber music, respectively. Jeffrey counts among his teachers Mark Edwards, Douglas Humpherys, Yoshikazu Nagai, and Robert McDonald.

JeffreyLaDeur.com SFPIANO.OR

Liam Teague is Professor of Music and Director of Steelpan Studies at Northern Illinois University (NIU) and leads the renowned NIU Steelband. He is the recipient of an NIU Board of Trustees Professorship Award (2022); Presidential Research, Scholarship and Artistry Professor Award (2018); and an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award (2023).

Hailed as the “Paganini of the Steelpan”, he has received several honors from Trinidad and Tobago, his country of birth, including the Hummingbird National Award (Silver), the Ansa McAl Caribbean Award for Excellence, and the Keys to the City of San Fernando.  In 2024, the Fox Valley Orchestra honored Teague with its Champion of the Arts award.

As a soloist, Teague has performed with diverse ensembles such as: National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, Czech National Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Panama National Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Vermeer String Quartet, Avalon String Quartet, Hannaford Street Silver Brass Ensemble, River City Brass Band, Nexus, Dartmouth Wind Ensemble, Indiana University Symphonic Band, and the BpTT Renegades Steel Orchestra. Teague has also collaborated with Grammy-Award winning musicians Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Samuels, Zakir Hussain and Dame Evelyn Glennie, and regularly concertizes with the steelpan and harp duo Pangelic, which he founded with Faye Seeman.  Liam has also appeared at several Percussive Arts Society International Conventions and international educational institutions.

Many of his compositions and arrangements are published with Panademy, MaumauMusic, RamajayMusic, and Wendeln Music Works. Teague has commissioned several outstanding composers to write for the steelpan; these include Michael Colgrass, Jan Bach, Libby Larsen, Andy Akiho, Deborah Fisher Teason, Joey Sellers, Ben Wahlund, Erik Ross, Kevin Bobo, David Gordon, Robert Chappell, Geof Bradfield, Casey Cangelosi, Gustavo Leone, Victor Provost, Etienne Charles, James Gourlay, and Reggie Thomas.

He is also the author of a steelpan method for beginners published by the Hal Leonard Corporation and has created arrangements for Panorama -the most celebrated steelband competition in the world. Teague has many recordings to his credit including Hands Like Lightning, Open Window, and Sorcerer.

Jaden Teague-Núñez is 18 years old and was born in Panama City, Panama. The son of Trinidadian and Panamanian parents, he began studying steelpan and piano at age 8 and 10, respectively.

He became the first steelpan soloist in the world to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra after winning the CSO’s Crain-Maling Foundation Young Artists Competition in 2024. In 2025, he was named YoungArts Winner with Distinction (classical percussion) by the National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists. His work has been covered by Chicago’s WGN-Television and in several newspapers which include the Trinidad Newsday and The Guardian.

Jaden has guested with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Fox Valley Orchestra, Wheaton Municipal Band, and the Northern Illinois University Steelband, and he has performed for the Nassau Music Society in the Bahamas and the 50th anniversary of Crop Over in Barbados. Teague-Núñez has played at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention and at the 2023 Tuba Bach Festival and concertizes with his father Liam Teague as the duo TNTeague. He has also collaborated with virtuoso pianist Jodie Desalvo on her Piano Talks concert series. Jaden also practices mixed martial arts at United Elite MMA.

Noël Wan, harp

Les fleurs du mal

Sergei Rachmaninoff, transcr. Wan Lilacs, Op. 21, No. 5
Gabriel Jenks Stalk (2008)
Gabriel Fauré Une chatelaine en sa tour …, Op. 110
Clifton Callender Arches and Strings (2024-26)
Giacomo Puccini, transcr. Katz/Wan Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums)
Per Nørgård Consolazione: Flos ut rosa (2002)
Richard Wagner, transcr. Blassel Isoldes Liebestod 

“Did you spring out of heaven or hell, O Beauty?” (Baudelaire) 

One of classical harp’s most distinctive emerging soloists, Noël Wan brings together her unique artistic voice and intellectual imagination in an all-new solo program, Les fleurs du mal. Pairing pieces by beloved late Romantic composers with exquisite twenty-first century works, she and her harp conjure a tangled, efflorescent world of decadence, perversion, and beauty.

Lauded as “a huge talent with hidden power and amazing maturity” (Bart van Oort) and “not [a harpist] to be slept on” (The Globe and Mail), Taiwanese-Canadian-American Noël Wan 萬依慈 commands a remarkably fresh creative voice, bridging charismatic artistry and intellect in her work as an international prize-winning solo harpist and interdisciplinary scholar.

Unparalleled in her musical versatility and technical virtuosity, Noël has garnered top prizes at major competitions, including the Astral Artists National Competition, USA International Harp Competition, Prix Orford Musique, and World Harp Competition. Her solo work spans classical repertoire to jazz transcriptions to experimental improvisation and has been supported by the Chimei Arts Foundation, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and Florida State University.

Recent seasons include debut solo recitals in Chicago, Auckland, Hong Kong, China (Fuzhou, Wuxi), and Atlantic Canada; performances of Pull No More, Liliya Ugay’s award-winning solo electroacoustic harp work, at the Chicago Electro-Acoustic Festival, Seoul International Computer Music Festival, and CAMPGround Festival; and the premiere of The Angel of Death, an electroacoustic harp-sculpture designed by installation artist Tra Bouscaren. In July 2026, she will make her Elora Festival recital debut and give the world premiere of Jovian and Telluric, op. 54, Caroline Lizotte’s new work for flute and electroacoustic harp at One Harp World in Toronto.

An alumna of the University of Illinois (BM, DMA) and the Yale School of Music (MM), Noël is currently the Assistant Professor of Harp and Entrepreneurship at Florida State University and harp faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music.