Sevenars is delighted to present, on July 25 at 4pm, pianist Jiayan Sun, who has been praised for ‘jaw-dropping brilliance” (Gazette and Observer, UK), “revelatory” performances (The New York Times), and “technically flawless, poetically inspired, and immensely assured playing” (the Toronto Star). He will perform Beethoven’s final three piano sonatas, Opp 109, 110, and 111, for which he has received considerable acclaim.
Location: Sevenars Academy, just off Rte. 112 at Ireland Street, South Worthington, Massachusetts
Admission: by donation at the door (suggested $20) – including refreshments
Jiayan Sun has performed with major orchestras internationally and has been broadcast by the BBC, the RTÉ, and radio stations worldwide. He has performed at the Verbier Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and others, as well as winning prizes at many major prestigious piano competitions, including Leeds, Dublin International, Cleveland International and the CCC Toronto International Piano Competitions.
Hailing from Yantai, China, Mr. Sun received his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from The Juilliard School as student of Yoheved Kaplinsky and Stephen Hough, with other mentors including Malcolm Bilson, Richard Goode, Robert Levin, and Lionel Party, as well as Philip Lasser for composition.
As the Iva Dee Hiatt Visiting Artist in Piano at Smith College, Mr. Sun presented Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas in chronological order (2018–2019). Possessing an encyclopedic repertoire, Mr. Sun has also performed a “Schubertiade” in a series of eight recitals exploring Schubert’s major piano and chamber works (2019–2020), and “The Timeless Genius of Chopin” featuring Chopin’s piano works in a series of four virtual recitals this year.
Mr. Sun has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the Chinese and RTÉ (Ireland) National Symphony Orchestras, the Fort Worth and Toledo Symphony Orchestras, the Toronto and Aspen Concert Orchestras, and the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, and he has conducted from the keyboard the Meiningen Court Orchestra. He has collaborated with prominent conductors such as Sir Mark Elder, Michail Jurowski, Stefan Sanderling, Leon Fleisher, David Hayes, Thomas Crawford, Daejin Kim, Kerry Stratton and Xincao Li. Under the mentorship of Sir András Schiff, he was invited to give a number of solo recitals in Europe as part of Schiff’s “Building Bridges” project.
As a special treat, Sevenars is presenting a Zoom session (July 21 at 5pm) in which Mr. Sun will discuss his upcoming program from his studio at Smith College, allowing him the possibility of piano excerpts. To receive a link to the Zoom session, please send your name and email address to [email protected] (and we hope to post some of the July 25 concert later on Sevenars YouTube channel). As some questions for Mr. Sun’s Zoom session will be collected in advance, feel free to send yours to [email protected].
Funded in part through a grant from the Worthington Cultural Council