All Categories - Pianissimo!

Windy City Sensation, Pianissimo! Chicago's Premiere Virtuoso Piano Ensemble

Piano Masters: From Bach to Beck

4/20/2017

As Artistic Director of Sheridan Music Studio Presents, I was thrilled to produce the first concert of a new series, Piano Masters on March 25, 2017 in Chicago at the Merit School of Music. This concert featured two of my prodigy students, Xiaoping Wang and Annika Huprikar, in their orchestral debuts. In addition, Pianissimo! performed multi-piano concerti by Bach-Vivaldi, Mozart and Poulenc, as well as a Chicago Premiere of composer Jeremy Beck's Nightlife for Four Pianos, collaborating with the FullScore Chamber Orchestra under the brilliant direction of Maestro Ron Arden. By all accounts, the concert was a huge success, and we are thrilled to share with you the videos on our YouTube Channel and our Pianissimo! website Video and Audio page. Please show us your support by "LIKING" the videos on YouTube, and leaving your comments, which for those of you who are novice YouTube users, helps our video to get more views and raises us in the rankings.
Believe it or not, the following day, March 26th, Pianissimo! was contracted to perform a Two Piano-Eight Hands concert at one of our favorite venues- the Northbrook Public Library. We not only had a sold-out house of 225 people, but they had to turn away about 30 people! The video of our Lavignac "Galop Marche" was the fitting Finale to our program- featuring all FOUR of us on ONE piano! Be sure to check out that video for some laughs and amusement. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed playing it!
~Susan

Pianissimo! Entered in the Grammy Awards for the FIRST time!

9/5/2016

Pianissimo! officially has three tracks from our Chicago Debut Concert CD entered in the 59th Grammy Awards! The three tracks our the commissioned works from our three composers- Grammy-Nominated composer, Ilya Levinson's original work dedicated to us is "Fireball for Four Pianos"- is a flashy, rhythmically-charged and dynamic work and is submitted in Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Margarita Zelenaia's highly virtuosic and romantic "Scheherazade Fantasy for Four Pianos" is submitted in Best Classical Chamber Music/Small Ensemble. James Stone's fleeting and impressionistic work written for Pianissimo! is entitled "Rip Current" and is submitted for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.
To NARAS members: Please support our work and that of these three marvelous composers- we sincerely hope you enjoy listening to their music as much as we enjoyed learning and performing it!

Pianissimo! wins Silver Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Global Music Awards!

3/26/2016

We are delighted to announce that our ensemble is now not only critically acclaimed, but also a prize-winning ensemble- with the newly awarded Silver Medal for Outstanding Achievement from The Global Music Awards! Please check out the Special Featured Artists page for which Global Music Awards has selected us, which includes an interview we think you will find interesting and informative to read!
http://www.globalmusicawards.com/ProfileSusanMerdinger.html

Our recent concert at the Northbrook Public Library Two Piano Festival brought us a standing ovation and rave reviews from the concert-goers! Following this concert, we took our program to the Curie Metro High School in Chicago and performed for 300+ hundred students there, as well!

Now, we plan for next season by discovering and preparing new repertoire, and seeking new music from contemporary composers. One such composer, Alan Krysiak, has just submitted his Transparent Preludes for multiple pianos, for our consideration! Some of our commissioned 4 piano works are also in process of being transcribed for two piano-eight hands, so that we can present our highly specialized musical program pretty much anywhere with two pianos, not just four pianos. We are so excited to bring the glory of piano and orchestral music to audiences everywhere!

We future concert dates planned for Northbrook Public Library, The Self-Help Home of Chicago, a performing arts conference and several high schools in the Chicago area.

If you are interested in booking us for next season- please contact us soon for y our choice of dates!

Prepare for Pianissimo!

2/24/2016

We are very excited to announce Pianissimo!'s first performance together at the newly renovated Northbrook Public Library Auditorium on Sunday March 13, 2016 at 2pm. The concert is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, but seating is limited, so arrive early for best seats!

Our program will include some of our repertoire from our Chicago Debut concert as well as some new repertoire by Wagner and Grieg and more.

Please bring your friends and family for a great program! Our CD's will also be on sale direct to you at this concert!

The Pianissimo! Live Concert CD is in production!

11/9/2015

We are very happy to report that our Live Concert CD is almost ready to go into production in time for the holidays! And some of the videos from our Chicago Debut Concert are in process of being uploaded to YouTube and to our website....please be patient- these things take time!
We are busy working on getting more concert engagements and are hoping to bring our program to several Chicago Public School and Senior Citizen Centers in 2016. Bringing together and coordinating the schedules of four active concert pianists isn't easy, but we think our concerts and our music are really worthwhile- and we hope you think so too! Below is a preview of our CD Cover!

Great press coverage for our Chicago Debut!

9/14/2015

Four Charismatic Piano Virtuosi....Chicago Classical Review

Ample technique and music integrity....... Chicago Classical Review

Six days and counting until Pianissimo! Chicago Debut Concert!

9/6/2015

It's a numbers game everyone! Four pianists, eight hands, forty fingers, four pianos with eighty-eight keys- all being tuned together especially for his concert, three composers who each spent countless hours composing and arranging for Pianissimo!, eleven works consisting of two-hundred-fifty pages of complex four and two piano scores and God--only knows how many notes, nine months and countless hours of planning, practicing, rehearsing, commuting, communicating, advertising, not to mention collectively over 100 years of piano study amongst the four members of the ensemble, AND, 350 seats in a hall to fill! Wow! Pretty impressive, huh?

You get the picture. So much has gone into preparing what promises to be a truly spectacular concert event you simply should not miss. Put aside your plans, invite your friends, have a little dinner our beforehand, and then head over to the Anne and Howard Gottlieb Hall at the Merit School of Music for an evening to remember! We need our family, friends and fans to come out in full force for this concert event- otherwise, there may not be another! We are ready to play our hearts out, but you know what they say- "If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it does it still make a sound?"
In other words, for any musician, the audience is what can make or break a concert- and we want and need you to be a part of it!

So please visit our website and order your tickets now via our Crowdfunding Campaign on Rockethub for tax=deductible contributions and gifts in addition to tickets, or just click on "BUY TICKETS" on our MENU to go straight to our event page on Artful.ly. com where just concert tickets Alone can be purchased for students, seniors, general admission, and preferred seating. Whatever your budget, there is a seat for you and your friends at our concert!

Even if you are not a big fan of "classical music" we guarantee that this concert may just change your mind! If you only attend just ONE CLASSICAL CONCERT THIS SEASON- THIS SHOULD BE IT! There is something for everyone- a little jazz, a little Broadway, orchestral transcriptions, contemporary music, and beloved classics. Best of all- no sleepers!!- just fun, dramatic, sensuous and spell-binding and virtuosic music at its very best performed on FOUR PIANOS!

Our Rockethub Fundraising Campaign has been launched as we prepare for the final countdown to Pianissimo!'s Chicago Debut!

7/27/2015

http://www.rockethub.com/projects/59106-pianissimo-chicago-s-premier-piano-ensemble-debut-concert
Please visit out Rockethub Fundraising Campaign to help us make our Chicago Debut one of the great concert events of the Chicago 2015-2016 season! We have invested our own savings and time to prepare for this event, but we still cannot do it without the support of all of our family, friends and fans. We want to play to a full house, to insure that we get a fantastic live concert recording and video to be used for future publicity and promotion. We need to cover the cost of our FOUR newly commissioned works, the audio and video engineering and CD production, the printed program books and photography of the event, the publicity and advertising both pre-and post-concert, and hopefully a new wardrobe for the four of us! Your gift and/or ticket purchase will help us to bring this BRAND NEW MUSIC TO LIFE!
If you act now you will help stimulate other people to invest in our ensemble and our project as we will rise up in the Rockethub Crowdfunding platform rankings- if we can show what great popular support we have from our existing network!
We are very grateful to those of you who have already made contributions when we held our Gala Fundraiser. Now's the time to purchase your concert tickets and help SPREAD THE WORD to all of your friends and contacts and invite them to join you at what promises to be a spectacular music concert.
Check out our Program for the Chicago Debut- there's something for EVERYONE!
http://www.pianissimoensemble.com/programs.html
We can't wait to share our music with you!
Susan, Irina, Svetlana and Elena

Pianissimo! Final Preparations for The Gala and Make Music Chicago

6/19/2015

On Thursday Pianissimo! made final preparations for our Gala Fundraiser and Make Music Chicago and Steinway Performances. WE pounded the pavement in Highland Park soliciting some new Sponsors which you can now see listed on our Sponsors and Donors Page. We also took a Beach Break at the new Rosewood Beach! Only Irina braved the cold 60 degree waters in a bathing suit, while Elena and I rolled up our pants and just got our feet wet! Then we needed to do some final wardrobe shopping.....black and whites for tonight, blues and turquoise is the color scheme for Sunday!

We hope to see our friends and fans at our Gala or on Sunday! We are all so psyched and can't wait to share our wonderful music with you!
Susan, Elena, Irina, Svetlana

Fiscal Sponsorship approved by Fractured Atlas!- New Sponsors Welcome!

6/17/2015

I am very excited to announce that Sheridan Music Studio Presents has been officially approved for Fiscal Sponsorship by Fractured Atlas, a 501c3 organization which helps musicians and artists by enabling them to accept donations and contributions on a 100% tax-deductible basis. You can visit the DONATION PAGE here: https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=12740
Pianissimo! is very excited to announce support from the following new Sponsors: Salon Vole, Bake 425, Frost Gelato, Lotus Nails, and more coming soon!
We are so excited about our First Gala Fundraiser coming up this Friday at 7:30pm! If you would like to join us for this exciting event, please visit the event website for more information and to purchase tickets:
http://pianista.celebrations.com/PianissimoGalaFund
We are also really psyched for our Make Music Chicago Performances at DePaul and at Steinway Piano Gallery in Chicago. Please visit the MMC website schedule here: http://matchchicago.makemusicday.org/artists/profile/882
Pianissimo! can't wait to share with you our MUSIC!

Pianissimo!, susan merdinger, svetlana belsky, irina feoktistova, elena doubovsitskaya,