HILTON HEAD INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION’S BRAVOPIANO! 2024 FESTIVAL RUNS February 29-March 4

Entitled “PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS...,” the festival showcases the piano’s collaborative capabilities, featuring eleven internationally renowned artists

John Morris Russell leads the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra for the March 4 finale including concertos by Gershwin, Rachmaninov and the rarely heard Busoni Indian Fantasy

From February 29-March 4, the Hilton Head International Piano Competition (HHIPC) will present the BravoPiano! 2024 Festival, featuring eleven artists over five days on Hilton Head Island.  This triennial festival celebrates the HHIPC and its rich history of winners from past and present. This season’s event, cleverly entitled “PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS…,” showcases the piano’s collaborative capabilities. Guest performers include HHIPC alumni—both prize-winners and judges—as well as prominent jazz pianists, all in a variety of ensemble settings. 

The festival opens with two premier piano duos in classical music and jazz, who partner offstage as married couples: classical virtuosos Ran Dank and Soyeon Kate Lee, (February 29), followed the next night by jazz greats Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes (March 1).  Saturday’s spotlight is on chamber music, with piano quintets performed by pianist Angela Cheng and the award-winning Verona Quartet (March 2), while Sunday’s program combines jazz and classical music in the masterful hands of pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist David Wong (March 3).  

Maestro John Morris Russell leads the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra for the BravoPiano! finale on Monday, March 4. The three-concerto program, entitled “Rhapsody and Fantasy,” features three different guest soloists. Drew Petersen (2011 HHIPC Second Prize winner) will play Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (in honor of the 100th anniversary of the premiere); and Orli Shaham (2019 HHIPC Juror) plays Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.  Wynona Yinuo Yang (2022 HHIPC Medalist) will perform Busoni’s rarely heard Indian Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra, a concerto incorporating transcriptions of traditional music of Native American tribes collected in the early 20^th century by American musicologist Natalie Curtis Burlin.

“The Hilton Head International Piano Competition’s BravoPiano! Festival is all about celebrating great pianism of all genres,” says HHSO Music Director John Morris Russell. “The HHIPC is a jewel in the cultural crown of the Lowcountry and I am excited to share with audiences this rich and diverse repertoire, especially Busoni’s fascinating Indian Fantasy, a rarely heard work incorporating the traditional music of Native American tribes from over a century ago.”

Competition Director, Steven Shaiman, says, "We started this festival in 2018 to recognize the HHIPC’s significance as one of the premier international competitions, providing important opportunities since 1996 for young pianists to perform and grow.  Since professional solo pianists live very solitary lives as performers, we decided to focus our third BravoPiano! Festival on the piano’s natural collaborative nature. By bringing back former winners and judges to perform and by including eminent jazz pianists as well, we shine the spotlight on the HHIPC and proudly celebrate our successful impact on the piano world.

The first four BravoPiano! performances (Feb. 29 through March 3) take place at St. Luke's Anglican Church (50 Pope Avenue), and the finale on Monday, March 4 will be at the HHSO’s traditional concert home at First Presbyterian Church Hilton Head Island (540 William Hilton Parkway).  Tickets for all concerts are on sale now through the HHIPC website (www.hhipc.org).  More information and tickets can also be obtained by calling the box office at 843-842-2055.

About the Hilton Head International Piano Competition:  The Hilton Head International Piano Competition, one of the leading international piano competitions in the United States, operates with a three-year rotation of events: an adult competition for pianists 18–30 years of age, a young artist competition for pianists 13–17 years of age, and a festival—BravoPiano!—which showcases past prize winners and other prominent keyboard artists performing music ranging from classical to jazz.  The HHIPC, inaugurated by the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra in 1996, draws applicants, artists, and audiences from numerous countries the world over, and many HHIPC artists are now enjoying thriving professional careers.

About John Morris Russell:  John Morris Russell’s embrace of America’s unique voice and musical stories has transformed how orchestral performances can connect and engage with audiences everywhere. The wide-range and diversity of his work with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra as a conductor, collaborator and educator invigorates the musical scene in Cincinnati and beyond. Mr. Russell is Music Director of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra and the Hilton Head International Piano Competition; and serves as Principal Pops Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, following in the footsteps of Marvin Hamlisch and Doc Severinsen. He served as Music Director of Ontario’s Windsor Symphony Orchestra from 2001-2012.

A popular guest conductor, Mr. Russell has worked with the leading North American orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Toronto Symphony and New York Philharmonic, the Boston Pops and the National Symphony. 

For over a decade, Mr. Russell has regularly led the National Orchestral Institute and Festival in College Park, Maryland, one of the nation’s premiere training orchestras. Dedicated to sharing the American musical experience with the newest generation of players, he helped develop and conducted the LinkUP! Educational concert series at Carnegie Hall; and has piloted educational programs with the Symphony Orchestras of Cincinnati, Windsor, and Hilton Head.

For over two decades, he has led the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s wildly successful Classical Roots initiative honoring and celebrating Black musical excellence, which has garnered record-breaking in-person and online audiences.

Mr. Russell’s seven recordings with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra include 2023’s holiday album JOY! And the landmark recordings in the “American Originals Project”: American Originals (the music of Stephen Foster); and the GRAMMY® nominated American Originals 1918 (a tribute to the dawn of the jazz age).

John Morris Russell earned degrees from the University of Southern California and Williams College and has studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, and the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors in Hancock, Maine.

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For more information, photos and press tickets to the 2024 BravoPiano Festival, please contact:
Rebecca Davis
Rebecca Davis Public Relations
Rebecca@rebeccadavispr.com
347-432-8832