2025
I started off the year in Miami, Florida as livestream host of the 11th National Chopin Piano Competition, hosted by the Chopin Foundation of the United States. Over 8 days, I interviewed the 23 competitors, some jury members and interacted with thousands of online viewers via the Chopin Foundation's YouTube channel.
After the competition, I flew to Garrick’s home in San Francisco to film the final three Chopin Podcast interviews in-person for the episodes on Polonaises, Sonatas, and Concertos.
I put on my concert pianist cape to perform a solo recital in Key Biscayne, Florida, gave a master class to some wonderful precollege students at UMiami's Frost School, and gave a faculty recital at home at Utah State University. In April, I performed Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto with the Southern Tier Symphony.
March saw the release of The Chopin Podcast, Season 2! This season will feature Garrick Ohlsson’s in-depth commentary and Jed Distler’s recording recommendations, as always, plus special guests Yulianna Avdeeva, Alexander Gadjiev, Kate Liu, Emanuel Ax, Jerome Lowenthal. The podcast will release each month from March to September, leading right into the 19th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in October 2025, where Garrick Ohlsson will serve as Chairman of the Jury. Compositional genres explored include: the Waltzes, Mazurkas, Polonaises, Sonatas, and Concertos, as well as a “Variety Show” episode dedicated to the Rondos, chamber music, and more.
So what’s next? In May, I’ll be traveling to Fort Worth, Texas to follow the performances of 30 pianists in the Seventeenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition!