Events & Performances

Artist | Schedule of Events | Ticket Information | Master Class Application

The University of Houston Moores School of Music presents the 29th annual International Piano Festival—a thrilling weekend of recitals a master classes with three of the world's great keyboard performers. Experience the grand tradition of the piano with festival founder, Abbey Simon, our "Houston Discovers…" artist, German pianist Markus Groh in his Houston recital debut, and Uruguayan virtuoso, Alberto Reyes.

Artists

Markus Groh

Consistently cited for his "sound imagination" and astonishing power, Markus Groh has confirmed his place among the finest pianists in the world today. Sharing the same birthday with Alfred Brendel, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Maurizio Pollini, he has proven himself worthy of their company. In addition to recent debuts with the National Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra,Mr. Groh has also appeared with the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Colorado, Detroit, Florida, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Louisville, Milwaukee, New Jersey, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle, among others. Worldwide engagements include the Bamberg Symphony, Beijing Symphony, Berlin Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Hague Residentie Orkest, Helsinki Philharmonic, London Symphony, MDR Orchestra at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, New Japan Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Osaka Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, SWR Orchestra (Stuttgart), and the Warsaw Philharmonic.

Mr. Groh's upcoming concerts include debuts with the Cincinnati Symphony, Houston Symphony, Mozarteum Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic and the Vancouver Symphony. Among the conductors with whom he has collaborated are Mei-Ann Chen, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Andreas Delfs, Ivan Fischer, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Hans Graf, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Marek Janowski, Neeme Järvi, Hannu Lintu, Fabio Luisi, Juanjo Mena, Ludwig Morlot, Kent Nagano, Jonathan Nott, David Robertson, Kwamé Ryan, and Stefan Sanderling.

A spellbinding recitalist, MarkusGroh reveals shapes, textures and colors that one seldom hears in live performance. Critics agree: "Groh is a great pianist." [Toronto Star]; "…a superb recital…" [New York Times]; "A new star in the pianistic firmament…" [Neue Zürcher Zeitung]. Recently, Mr. Groh has appeared in recital at the Friends of Chamber Music Denver, Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City, Vancouver Recital Society, and at The Frick Collection in New York. Chamber music activities include tours with both Claudio Bohórquez and the Tokyo String Quartet.

Widely acclaimed for his interpretations of Liszt, an all-Liszt CD (including the Totentanz and B Minor Sonata) was released by AVIE in 2006. Showered with rave reviews, it was also named "Editor's Choice" in Gramophone Magazine. An all-Brahms CD was released by AVIE in June of 2008. Other recordings include a CD of Debussy, Prokofiev, and Britten cello sonatas with Claudio Bohórquez on Berlin Classics and a CD of Liszt's Totentanz with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Fabio Luisi on Cascavelle.

A frequent guest at international festivals such as Grant Park, Folle Journée, Ruhr, Ludwigsburg, Bad Kissingen, and Schubertiade (Austria), Mr. Groh is the founder and artistic director of the Bebersee Festival near Berlin. He has appeared frequently on radio and television in Germany, Spain, Belgium, Holland, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Japan (NHK), Mexico and the United States (NPR).

Markus Groh was born on the 5th of January 1970 in southern Germany. He was a student of Professor Konrad Richter in Stuttgart and Professor Hans Leygraf in Berlin and Salzburg. He gained immediate world attention after winning the prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Brussels in 1995, the first German to do so. Other awards include First Prize at the 1990 Artur Schnabel Competition in Berlin.

Mr. Groh divides his time between Berlin and New York.

"Groh plays straight, just as God and Brahms instruct him…[he] now ranks at the top of the German tradition, a worthy heir to Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Wilhelm Kempff." —Berliner Morgenpost

"Groh proved exceptionally well-suited to the giant task of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2… Not for a second did Groh lose his cool. Instead, he devoured the piece with sparing gestures and the apparent ease of a complete virtuoso." —Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

Alberto Reyes

Born in Uruguay in 1948, pianist Alberto Reyes has been concertizing internationally for more than five decades, having played his first recital at the age of eight in his native Montevideo, performing works of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin and Debussy, and repeating the program one month later in Buenos Aires.

His first appearance as a soloist with orchestra took place in Montevideo's Teatro Solís when he was thirteen years old, and before coming to the United States to study at Indiana University School of Music in 1966, he was busy as recitalist and soloist in Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil.

Reyes made his New York debut at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall in 1974, and his Russian debut in Moscow in 1972, during an eight-city concert tour of the former Soviet Union.

As a prizewinner/laureate in some of the most prestigious international piano competitions, such as the Van Cliburn (1973), Leventritt (1971), Tchaikovsky (1970) and Rio de Janeiro (1969), Reyes toured extensively in the U.S., Canada, and South America.

In 1991 Connoisseur Society released his recording of Franz Liszt's complete opera paraphrases and transcriptions, and in the fall of 2009, VAI Audio is releasing a double CD recording of music by Chopin, including both Sonatas (Op. 35 and Op. 58) and other major works.

Abbey Simon

University of Houston Cullen Professor of Music and one of the most recorded classical artists of all time.

Schedule of Events

Ticket Information

Tickets to all events may be reserved by calling the Moores School of Music Box Office at 713-743-3313.

All programs are subject to change.

Group Rates available for advance purchase. Please call 713-743-3313 for more information.
Free parking for all International Piano Festival events.