Bay Area Pianists to the Fore in the Piano Break Sessions

The Ross McKee Foundation’s alliance with Bay Area pianists and a move to feature more work by Black composers resulted in July 2020 in the Piano Break sessions. Fashioned to support keyboardists hard hit by the pandemic and offer access to their music for audiences, the online series currently runs through December 18.

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Executive Director Nicholas Pavkovic in a press release says, “Part of the success of Piano Break has been the inclusion of so many rarely performed works by Black composers. The audience continues to grow each week because people are curious to learn more about these composers.” The fall series includes works by Black composers George Walker, Joseph Bologne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges), Adolphus Hailstork, and Oscar Peterson, among others. The premiere of each 45-minute, prerecorded concert broadcast on the Ross McKee Foundation YouTube channel presents the pianists in a virtual Zoom “Green Room” postconcert conversation where audience comments and questions provide live interaction with the musicians.

See the complete lineup at the Piano Break website. (http://www.rossmckeefoundation.org/pianobreak/)