Program

Germaine Tailleferre: Overture and Three Movements from the opera Il était un Petit NavireMaurice Ravel: Sonatine Frédéric Chopin: 24 Preludes, Op. 28

About Raj Bhimani

Pianist Raj Bhimani’s concerts are “virtuosic, heartfelt and eloquent,” writes New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman. Time Out NY noted him as being a “gifted and highly expressive pianist.” Performing regularly across North America and Europe, he also makes frequent appearances in India, where the nationally distributed newspaper The Hindu wrote, “Raj Bhimani is a very sensitive piano player, with a predilection for lyrical melody accompanied with rhythmic gracefulness.” In New York, where he resides, he appears often at The Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center as well as at other venues.

Mr. Bhimani is a champion of new music and has developed a particular expertise in French piano literature. During his time studying in Paris he had the opportunity to meet composer Henri Dutilleux, who declared him “a great artist who plays with sensitivity and intelligence.” In 2016, to mark what would have been the composer’s 100th birthday, Mr. Bhimani gave several performances of his works, including the Preludes, which Mr. Bhimani learned from handwritten manuscripts given to him by the composer before these works were published.

Another prominent French composer, Thérèse Brenet, has written several works especially for Mr. Bhimani. Two of Ms. Brenet’s compositions for Mr. Bhimani can be heard on a CD entitled “To the West Wind,” on the Delatour label. A disc containing Schubert’s B-flat Sonata and Moments Musicaux was issued by Delatour in the same year. Two more works Ms. Brenet wrote for Mr. Bhimani were issued in 2014 on a disc entitled “Le Visionnaire,” released by Musik Fabrik, which has also released recordings of late solo works by Brahms as well as another disk dedicated to solo works by Ravel. All these recordings are available worldwide on numerous platforms. A recording dedicated to late sonatas of Schubert is in preparation, and Mr. Bhimani is honored to be the first pianist invited to record previously-unpublished works by composer Germaine Tailleferre. This will be a multi-disk project.

In addition to solo recitals, Mr. Bhimani also performs with Syrinx : XXII, a group formed with musicians from Portugal. The trio performs regularly in the US, Portugal, and India, and has premiered works written especially for them by composers in Portugal and Germany.

Frequently sought after as a teacher and pedagogue, Mr. Bhimani is known for guiding students from their first encounters with a piano up to concert level performances. His students have earned numerous prizes and have been heard in performance at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and other esteemed venues in New York and across the United States. He writes articles on teaching and performance for Serenade Magazine, is a frequent judge and lecturer on piano pedagogy, and has served on the board of The Leschetizky Association, an organization committed to upholding the great pedagogue’s ideals of beautiful tone production and musical integrity. Mr. Bhimani is grateful to his own teachers: John Steele Ritter, Peter Hewitt, Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer, Claude Frank, and Seymour Bernstein.

Follow Mr. Bhimani’s activities at his website, RajBhimani.com, like his page on Facebook, follow him on Instagram, or subscribe to his channel on YouTube.

(Photo by Jiyang Chen)