The Calp City Council, through the Department of Culture, organizes for the first time the Calp Piano Festival, an event that will feature renowned pianists from the international scene as well as new promising piano players. In fact, this festival aims, on the one hand, to promote the talent of young pianists from Calp and, on the other hand, to give Calp citizens the opportunity to enjoy great artists from the world of piano.
The event will feature a concert every weekend in April – except for the first weekend in which two concerts have been scheduled – and the last two weekends in May. It will begin on April 6 with the performance of Silke Ribes from Calpina, currently a student at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid, who has
trained with outstanding teachers and in 2020 received the Curtis Summerfest scholarship in Philadelphia, a training program offered by this high-performance institute, considered the best conservatory in the US, in addition to having won numerous awards despite its youth.
Brothers Hang and Kai Lin Chen, also two young promises from Calp, will perform on April 8. Aged 13 and 16, they have performed in concerts by the Ifach Choir and at the 12th Tribute Gala 'Amics de la Pedrera 2024' and stand out for their maturity and personality on the piano. In addition to these new piano talents, renowned artists will participate in the festival
pianists such as the internationally renowned Italian Giuliano Adorno, who will perform on April 12. Adorno, current principal piano teacher at the D. Cimarosa Institute of Avellino, has obtained awards and recognitions in more than 30 national and international piano competitions.
The Hungarian István Székely, for his part, will perform on April 19. Székely is a professor at the Katarina Gurska Conservatory in Madrid and the Franz Liszt Center for Young Talents in La Nucía. Winner of various awards in national and international competitions, he is director of several national and international piano competitions and festivals.
Rosa Blanco, trained in Madrid and Germany, will participate in the Calp Piano Festival on April 26. She has given recitals in Spain, France and Germany, among other countries, and has been distinguished in various competitions in her specialty. Currently she combines her artistic activity with that of teaching.
The performances will continue on May 22 with Antonio Galera, who has an outstanding international career that has led him to perform in the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Malaysia, Qatar and Taiwan. He currently teaches courses at the University of Valencia and in schools and universities in different European, Asian and North American cities. And he is passionate about cultural management and research, which led him to design projects such as the Iturbis Festival in 2019 for the Diputació de València.
The performance by Armenian Sofya Melikyan will close the Calp Piano Festival on May 30. This pianist, who received the Extraordinary End of Career Honor Award, completed postgraduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music in New York and has performed in prestigious venues in Europe, Asia, the United States, Australia and Canada.
The concerts, which are free, will take place at 20:00 p.m. at the Saló Blau.
«From the Department of Culture we have organized an ambitious festival with different styles and personalities but with the common denominator of quality and excellence. With this Piano Festival we place our city in the elite of the dissemination and visibility of this beautiful instrument," said the Councilor for Culture, Guillermo Sendra.
