LIEDER ALIVE! presents
Concert Confidential with Jeffrey LaDeur, piano

Jeffrey LaDeur, piano

Jeffrey LaDeur presents a unique and ever-changing solo show with Concert Confidential. Audiences around the country have acclaimed this original live performance series as a fresh and innovative complement to the traditional piano recital. Featuring solo piano masterworks, anecdotes, comedy, and musical insight, Concert Confidential breaks the fourth wall in a way that welcomes the audience into the musical life of a pianist in all its tragicomic glory.  

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.ORG 

Wooden Fish Ensemble
202 Years of Strings and Piano

Thalia Moore, cello
Richard Worn, double bass
Thomas Schultz, piano

Franz Schubert excerpt from Piano Sonata in C major, D. 840
Franz Schubert Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano, D. 821
Louis Moreau Gottshalk, arr. Schultz The Banjo
Hyo-shin Na Kafka’s Hands World Premiere
Hyo-shin Na Pushing Open the Garden Gate World Premiere
Hyo-shin Na Walking, Walking 

Spanning the centuries from Schubert’s Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano and Piano Sonata in C to Gottschalk’s masterpiece The Banjo and San Francisco’s own Hyo-shin Na. Featuring two of her new works Kafka’s Hands for cello and double bass and Pushing Open the Garden Gate for cello, double bass, and piano along with Walking, Walking for piano. A reception will follow the concert! Everyone is cordially invited!

The San Francisco based Wooden Fish Ensemble presents concerts featuring music and musicians from a variety of cultural and national backgrounds working together in a collaborative way. The Ensemble has performed concerts of traditional music from Asia alongside new music by a diverse group of composers that includes John Cage, Christian Wolff, Frederic Rzewski, Morton Feldman, Hyo-shin Na, and Walter Zimmermann, with numerous world premieres.

Jason Sia, piano

Carmencita Guanzon Arambulo Poème: A Song Without Words
Claude Debussy L’isle joyeuse
Frédéric Chopin, transcr. Carl Reinecke Larghetto from Piano Concerto No. 2
Maurice Ravel Gaspard de la nuit
Earl Wild / George Gershwin Grand Fantasy on Gershwin’s Opera ‘Porgy and Bess’

Recognized for his eloquently expressive depth of interpretation and seamless technique, pianist Jason Sia presents a captivating program spanning French impressionism, Romantic lyricism, and dazzling 20th-century virtuosity. Mr. Sia has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Central America, and Asia, including appearances at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

The program opens with Poème: A Song Without Words by Carmencita Guanzon Arambulo, a lyrical and intimate work of quiet nostalgia, followed by Claude Debussy’s radiant L’isle joyeuse, shimmering with color, rhythmic vitality, and a sense of ecstatic freedom. A moment of poetic reflection follows with the Larghetto from Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, presented in a refined solo transcription by Carl Reinecke, offering one of Chopin’s most tender and operatic melodies.

At the heart of the program is Maurice Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, a monumental and haunting triptych inspired by the prose poems of Aloysius Bertrand. Widely regarded as one of the most technically demanding works in the piano repertoire, it conjures vivid imagery: the seductive water nymph in Ondine, the desolate tolling of Le gibet, and the demonic, electrifying virtuosity of Scarbo, a tour de force of pianistic brilliance and imagination.

The program culminates in the exhilarating Grand Fantasy on Gershwin’s Opera ‘Porgy and Bess’ by George Gershwin, brilliantly reimagined by virtuoso pianist Earl Wild. This electrifying paraphrase transforms Gershwin’s iconic melodies into a dazzling showcase of color, rhythm, and virtuosity—blending jazz, opera, and classical traditions into a thrilling and triumphant conclusion.

For more information, please visit www.jasonsia.com

Duo Soriga

Josephine Lee, soprano
Hwayoung Shon, gayageum

Duo Soriga unites soprano Josephine Lee and gayageum performer-composer Hwayoung Shon in an intimate dialogue between voice and Korean strings, blending masterful performance with exploratory sound to create poetic musical narratives across tradition and contemporary expression. Soriga is a creative fusion of the Korean words ‘Sori’ (voice/sound) and ‘Gayageum’, while also carrying the poetic nuance of “a beautiful sound blooms” in Korean. They weave together the profound resonance of the gayageum, an instrument that mirrors the depths of human emotion, with the clarity of the human voice into a single, unified breath. As Josephine’s lyrical narratives unfold alongside Hwayoung’s intricate and expansive melodies, the two voices respond with tenderness and precision, creating a distinctive and evocative musical dialogue.

Spanning modern interpretations of traditional folk songs, refined art songs, and contemporary compositions, Duo Soriga captures both the serene aesthetics and inner dynamism of Korean music, offering audiences a timeless resonance and intimate connection.

Josephine Lee: www.josephineleesoprano.com

Hwayoung Shon: www.hwayoungshon.com

 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).