9th Annual San Francisco International Piano Festival

Opening Night: Postcards

Éva Polgár, piano (San Francisco debut)
Jeffrey LaDeur, piano

Samuel Barber Souvenirs for piano four-hands
Derek Bermel Turning
Franz Liszt Bénédiction et serment for piano four-hands, S. 628
Franz Liszt Deux légendes, S. 185 – I: St. François d’Assise: La predication aux oiseaux; II: St. François de Paule marchant sur les flots
Franz Liszt Gaudeamus igitur (Humoreske) for piano four-hands, S. 586

The 9th annual San Francisco International Piano Festival is proud to present its opening night concert at Old First Concerts, continuing the festival’s long-standing partnership with the series. As the season celebrates a kaleidoscope of international voices, the festival opens with Samuel Barber’s Souvenirs, a charming and sparkling suite of dances reflective of different musical traditions. Derek Bermel’s Turning presents a profound postcard in variation form, written after the composer’s studies in Ghana. Beginning with a simple hymn tune, the work explores an eclectic palette of musical styles in dramatic fashion. The music of Liszt is featured throughout the evening, a master musical storyteller who exploits the full tonal and technical possibilities of the piano.

This program features the San Francisco debut of renowned pianist Éva Polgár in solo works by Liszt and in duo works with festival founder and artistic director Jeffrey LaDeur. Ms. Polgár maintains an active and international performance schedule along with her dedication to mentoring the next generation of musicians. Her performances have been heard at Carnegie Hall, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and at prominent venues throughout the United States and her native Hungary. Don’t miss this varied and exciting evening of classics and rare gems!

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

About the artists

Pianist Éva Polgár is a sought-after recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, educator, and adjudicator. Critics praise her for her “intelligent interpretations” (Funzine Magazine) and “emotional power” (New York Concert Review). Her dedication to her native Hungarian culture has led her to research Béla Bartók’s piano arrangements of his original orchestral compositions and to specialize in the music of Franz Liszt. Her solo album, Liszt: Harmonies patriotiques et religieuses, was released under Hunnia Records. She has appeared as a panelist and expert on BBC World Service’s program The Forum: Franz Liszt – Hungarian pianist and painter in sound.

Polgár has toured the Americas, Asia, and Europe. As the Hungary Foundation’s Cultural Ambassador of the Year in 2022, she performed a full program of musical treasures from Central Europe and Hungary at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York City and Nichols Concert Hall in Chicago. Her concerto performances include appearances with conductors Horst Förster at the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, Tamás Vásáry at the Danube Palace in Budapest, and Okko Kamu at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

Her chamber music debut recitals at Carnegie Hall featured violinist Kristóf Baráti and clarinetist Bence Szepesi, and at the Kennedy Center she performed with pianists László Borbély and Gábor Varga, all to high critical acclaim. She has also collaborated with Klára Csordás (voice), Márta Ábrahám (violin), and Vilmos Szabadi (violin), among other renowned artists. Her long-standing duo partner is flutist Lisa Bost-Sandberg, with whom she recorded Asha Srinivasan’s virtuosic work Utthishta.

An avid promoter of contemporary music, Polgár actively collaborates with composers and new music performers. Her solo and collaborative repertoire ranges from Pierre Boulez to emerging composers. As a member of the InterSpheres Trio, alongside flutist Lisa Bost-Sandberg and percussionist Jacob Harpster, she has built an impressive performance history, commissioning and premiering works such as i/o (2017) by Daniel Tramte and dualith (2017) by Balázs Horváth, in addition to performing other trio and duo repertoire on national and international tours. She gave the world premiere of Andrew S. Lloyd’s Préludes: Book II at the University of Texas at San Antonio, supported by the Barlow Endowment. In the realm of cross-disciplinary endeavors, she collaborates with visual artist Sándor Vály. Their experimental music albums, released under Ektro Records, have been broadcast by Finnish Radio.

Polgár has won top prizes in competitions, including the 2012 Los Angeles International Liszt Competition (LAILC). In 2017, she was elected co-director of LAILC alongside Dr. Katherine Hickey, a role through which she fosters young musicians in the early stages of their professional careers. To support her work in mentoring emerging talents and promoting the musical heritage of Franz Liszt, the Hungarian Academy of Arts awarded her a three-year grant to design a series of twenty-nine concerts in Hungary and the United States between September 2020 and August 2023.

A graduate of the Franz Liszt University and the Sibelius Academy, Polgár earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas (UNT). Her former mentors include Jenő Jandó, Hamsa Al-Wadi Juris, Lívia Rév, Orsolya Szabó, and Adam Wodnicki.

A committed educator and adjudicator, she has given masterclasses and appeared at festivals and competitions such as LAILC, the Bogotá International Piano Festival in Colombia, East China Normal University, the Pacific Stars International Piano Competition, and the Southeastern Piano Festival, among many others. She is currently Assistant Professor of Piano and Keyboard Area Coordinator at East Tennessee State University. In addition to her teaching appointment, she serves as President of the Appalachian Music Teachers Association and as Executive Secretary on the Executive Board of the American Liszt Society. In this capacity, she hosted the American Liszt Society Festival at East Tennessee State University in fall 2025.

www.evapolgar.com

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

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 Piano Miniatures
George Walker Prelude and Caprices
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 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

9th Annual San Francisco International Piano Festival

Stephen Prutsman & TNTeague Duo: Steelpan & Piano Masterworks

Stephen Prutsman, piano
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 program opens with a special appearance by festival favorite Stephen Prutsman, inimitable pianist, composer, and improviser. Don’t miss this uniquely exciting evening.

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.

Stephen Prutsman has been described as one of the most innovative musicians of his time. Moving easily from classical to jazz to world music styles as a pianist and composer, Prutsman continues to explore and seek common ground and relationships in the music of all cultures and languages.

In the early 2000s Stephen was Artistic Partner with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, where he wrote several new works for the orchestra, led performances of other composers as a conductor and pianist, and developed the orchestra’s contemporary and world music series. Later he was the Artistic Director of the Cartagena International Festival of Music, South America’s largest festival of its kind, programming and curating concerts with themes ranging from Mozart celebrations, to eclectic evenings of folk and popular music of the Americas, to hybrid programs fusing art and dance music of multiple musical dimensions.

In the early 90’s he was a medal winner at the Tchaikovsky and Queen Elisabeth Piano Competitions, and received the Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since then Stephen has performed the classical concerto repertoire as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and his classical discography includes acclaimed recordings of the Barber and McDowell concerti with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, recordings of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, and a solo jazz album entitled “Passengers”.

Born in Los Angeles, Stephen first began playing the piano by ear at age 3 before moving on to more formal music studies. In his teens and early 20s he was the keyboard player for several art rock groups including Cerberus and Vysion (and was a winner of television’s “The Gong Show”!) During those years, he worked regularly as a solo jazz pianist playing in many southern California clubs and lounges and was the music arranger for a nationally syndicated televangelist program.

As a composer, Stephen’s long collaboration with Grammy Award winning Kronos Quartet has resulted in over 40 arrangements and compositions for them. Other leading artists and ensembles who have performed Stephen’s compositions and arrangements include Leon Fleisher, Dawn Upshaw, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma, Spoleto USA, and the Silk Road Project. In 2010, his song cycle “Piano Lessons” was premiered by Ms. Upshaw and Emanuel Ax at Carnegie Hall (New York), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Disney Hall (Los Angeles) and the Barbican Centre (London). As a pianist or arranger outside of the classical music world he has collaborated with such diverse personalities as Tom Waits, Rokia Traore, Jon Anderson of “YES”, Sigur Rós and Asha Bhosle. He has scored for a variety of ensembles 15 silent films from the 1920s which are regularly presented at various venues throughout the world.

He is a board member of several organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area promoting the well-being of people living with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and regularly produces and curates “Azure Concerts” musical performances tailored for individuals on the autism spectrum and their families. He was recently named Creative Director for Phenotypic Recordings, a new company specializing in recordings of contemporary music, and in January of 2023 Prutsman began a 2-year appointment as Visiting Artist at Stanford University.

9th Annual San Francisco International Piano Festival

Festival Finale: Symphonic Dances

Elizabeth Dorman, piano (Festival debut)
Jeffrey LaDeur, piano
Karina Tseng, 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.

Mike Greensill & Friends

Celebrating Greensill’s 80th birthday and 40th anniversary of performing at Old First Concerts

Mike Greensill, piano

with special guests:

Roberta Donnay, vocals
Kellie Fuller, vocals
Gale Terminello, vocals
Noel Jewkes, saxes
Bill Klingelhoffer, French horn
Ruth Davies, bass
Brad Buethe, guitar

Acclaimed jazz pianist, arranger, and accompanist Mike Greensill will mark two milestones with a special all-star concert at Old First Concerts. The performance celebrates Greensill’s 80th birthday, which falls on September 5, as well as his 40th year performing in the Old First Concerts series.

A beloved figure in the Bay Area jazz community since arriving from England in 1977, Greensill is known for his decades-long collaboration as musical director and accompanist for his late wife, renowned vocalist Wesla Whitfield with whom he recorded 20 albums. Throughout his distinguished career he has played at many of San Francisco’s most heralded clubs, bars and honky tonks, including The Plush Room, Feinstein’s at The Nikko, Stars, The Washbag, Moose’s, and more, and has shared the stage and recording studio with an impressive roster of musicians, many of whom will join him for this special anniversary performance.

Featured vocalists include Roberta Donnay, whose recent CD Blossoming—a tribute to Blossom Dearie—was arranged and performed by Greensill; Kellie Fuller, a frequent collaborator with Greensill in performances at the Blue Note in Napa and Gale Terminello, whose latest recording with Greensill is titled I’m Old Fashioned.

The concert will also reunite Greensill with renowned multi-instrumentalist Noel Jewkes. In 1991, Mike and Noel recorded the critically acclaimed album American Lullaby. Together, they will revisit selections from that celebrated recording. A special highlight of the afternoon will feature French horn virtuoso Bill Klingelhoffer, principal horn with San Francisco Opera. Greensill famously incorporated a quartet of horns led by Klingelhoffer on Wesla Whitfield’s album Livin’ on Love, and Klingelhoffer will perform several selections during the concert.

Anchoring the rhythm section will be two of Greensill’s longtime musical colleagues: acclaimed bassist Ruth Davies and guitarist Brad Buethe, whose artistry and sensitivity have made them valued collaborators over the years.

For jazz enthusiasts and longtime admirers alike, this special event celebrates the beginning of Greensill’s ninth decade and forty years of appearances with Old First Concerts, offering a rare opportunity to experience a gathering of some of the Bay Area’s finest musicians honoring one of its most cherished artists.

Kevin Lee Sun, piano & Friends

Look to This Day

Kevin Lee Sun, piano
Hyo-shin Na, composer
Daniel De Togni, composer & shakuhachi
Wallis Lucas, soprano 

Daniel De Togni Death Poems (2025) for shakuhachi and piano West Coast Premiere
Hyo-shin Na Rain Study (1999) for piano solo
Hyo-shin Na Autumn Study (2023) for piano solo
Daniel De Togni Songs of Becoming (2024) for soprano and piano West Coast Premiere

Kevin Lee Sun is Assistant Professor of Piano at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. In 2021, he was the sole pianist to be named Finalist of that year’s Berlin Prize for Young Artists in Germany. A native of Sacramento and an alumnus of Stanford and SFCM, Sun returns to California for this concert.

Sun’s program Look to This Day presents music by two living composers—Hyo-shin Na and Daniel De Togni—who will be in attendance. The program is centered around the difficulty, ephemerality, and cherishment of life. “Lord let me suffer much / and then die / Let me walk through silence / and leave nothing behind not even fear.” So begins a Polish poem by Anna Kamieńska that inspired Hyo-shin Na to compose her Autumn Study. Na’s other piece on the program, Rain Study, was inspired by a Korean folk song: “The sun that sets will rise again tomorrow. A life that passes will never return.”

Complementing Hyo-shin Na’s music are the West Coast Premieres of two duo works by Daniel De Togni. Death Poems for shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) and piano was inspired by Japanese haikus that act as momento mori. The composer himself will perform on the shakuhachi. For the program’s second half, Pittsburgh-based soprano Wallis Lucas joins Sun for Songs of Becoming, a 30-minute song cycle that sets De Togni’s original text and an ancient Sanskrit poem. Partially in response to his experiences and feelings while living in San Francisco, De Togni’s six songs explore themes of personal growth, dreaming, homelessness, depression, and the preciousness of each day.

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.

 We recognize the challenges that we still face: the slow return of live audiences after the pandemic, a shift in the funding landscape by major Foundations, and the economic uncertainties brought about by inflation, conflict and climate change. When you give to Old First Concerts, you invest in the local arts community and stand with us as we overcome these challenges together! 

 Your donation to Old First Concerts:  

• Helps keep our prices incredibly affordable – you might have to pay twice as much to hear the same artists at another venue. We also provide $5 tickets for low-income seniors and students to nearly every concert. 
• Supports local musicians and keeps them in our community. Our series has hosted many first post-pandemic performances. 
• Ensures a safe space for music by women and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) composers. Performers of this music seek out Old First Concerts as the venue of choice for this programming.   

 This year, we hope you would consider of gift of $125 or another amount that feels right to you. We deeply appreciate all gifts and acknowledge them in our printed programs and on our website.

If you would prefer to mail a check, please send it to:
Old First Concerts
1751 Sacramento Street
San Francisco, CA 94109

Old First Concerts is a registered 501(c)3 Charitable Organization (Tax ID#:94-2898233).