Hastings International Piano offers online concerts during coronavirus shut-down

This evening’s event will be a recital from 2018 Competition Winner Roman Kosyakov and takes place on Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition’s Facebook page.

The concert will also be streamed on www.hastingsinternationalpiano.org.

The programme will be Haydn’s Sonata in E-minor Hob. XIV/34 and Tchaikovsky’s Vasle-Scherzo Op. 7 in A.

These online events are free to watch, but music lovers will be able to make a voluntary donation to Hastings International Piano Engagement Fund via its JustGiving page. People can also choose to join as a Friend.

Hannah Deeble, general manager of Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition and Hastings International Piano Festival, said: “On the Facebook page there will be a live video premiere, which will go up on the page. This afternoon you can click to say you’re going to watch it, so it lines it up for you.”

Hastings International Piano decided to create this online series (‘An Evening in With...’) after arts venues across the UK suspended shows due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

“We’re very conscious that because of the virus lots of musicians are out of work,” Hannah explained. “Lots of cancellations and performances, concerts and gigs. A lot of our prizewinners have already told us that they’re losing a lot of their income in the next couple of months as their concerts are cancelled, so we wanted to do something to support their careers and get them through this difficult time.”

“I hope it will be a nice break from the stress and the worries of the day,” she continued. “15-20 minutes of wonderful classical music to listen to on your Friday evening so hopefully everybody can gather round and feel like they’re watching together. With Facebook Live you can also comment and you can share your views on the concert as it happens, which is quite nice. Also we’re asking if people – while watching or after watching – if they would like to subscribe to our newsletter. If they’d like to sign up as a Friend or Patron or if they’d like to make a donation to our engagement projects then they can do that as well, but otherwise the videos are free to watch.”

“We had a series of engagements for our prizewinners in the coming months that we’re not sure will be able to go ahead. So as long as this current situation continues, we’ll continue this online platform. But we hope to be able to get our audiences together and see our prizewinners live in the coming months, as soon as possible.”

“The 2021 International Piano Competition actually opens online in April,” Hannah added. “So we’ll be expecting another couple of hundred young pianists from around the world to be entering over the coming months – it’s something to look forward to for next February in Hastings.”

Roman Kosyakov is a laureate and a winner of many national and international competitions. He is regularly invited to give concerts in France, Italy, Germany, Republic of Belarus, Russia, UK, USA, and was guest soloist from 2014 to 2017 at the Kemerovsky State Symphony Orchestra.

Roman won the prestigious 1st Prize and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Prize of the 14th Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition.

2019 prizewinner Maxim Kinasov is lined up for next Friday evening’s performance (March 27).