LIVE at Piedmont Piano Company
Rachel Breen & Sergey Belyavsky
Carnivals: from Schumann to Strauss to Stravinsky
Classical pianist Rachel Breen returns for her annual Bay Area appearance. She will be joined by Sergey Belyavsky for a program that will include Schumann's Carnaval op. 9, Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka, Moritz Rosenthal's Carnaval de Vienne, and more.
FREE Admission, $20 suggested donation
We are offering a limited number of seats for this performance. Reservations are required for entry. Masking no longer required.
RACHEL BREEN
American pianist Rachel Breen’s performances have been described as “truly show-stopping” (Gramophone UK), having “a beautiful piano sound and original detail.” She is a student of the late Lars Vogt at Hannover's Hochschule für Musik; previously, she completed degrees at Yale University and the Juilliard School under--respectively--Boris Slutsky and Julian Martin. Breen was self-taught until age 10, when she began lessons with Dr. Sharon Mann at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is indebted to the Imogen Cooper Music Trust, of which she is a 2024 scholar.
Laureate of the 2025 Queen Elisabeth Competition, Breen has also been awarded top prizes at Premi Iturbi (2023), the Hans von Bülow International Competition (2023), the Bösendorfer International Competition (2023), the Honens International Piano Competition (2022), the Beethoven International Competition in Vienna (2021), and the Georges Cziffra International Competition (2019), among others. She was selected as the 2021-23 National Federation of Music Clubs’ Young Artist in the US, and received the 2021 Kurt Alten Prize at her university in Germany.
Her most recent concert seasons have featured guest artist appearances at the Chautauqua Institute, Sarasota Music Festival, Festival Piano aux Jacobins, Southeastern Piano Festival, The San Francisco International Piano Festival, the Beethovenfest in Bonn, Merkin Hall for IKIF, Festival Liszt en Provence, and Fazioli Hall's Concert Series. She is featured in the 2021 podcast 30 Bach in a discussion and performance of the Goldberg Variations.
Aside from piano, Breen has an interest in languages, having received first prize on the National Latin Exam and third prize on the National French Exam. She spends her spare time running, exploring philosophy and visual arts, and forgetting to answer important emails. She is currently based in Hannover, Germany. rachelbreenpiano.com
SERGEY BELYAVSKY
Praised as a “powerhouse of a player,” (Limelight Magazine) pianist Sergey Belyavsky is known for his vast and diverse repertoire, with an emphasis on compositions from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Sergey received widespread recognition after winning prizes in more than thirty international piano competitions, including the Gina Bachauer Competition, the Budapest Liszt Competition, the Liszt Utrecht, the Maria Canals Competition, the Sydney International Piano Competition, Premi Iturbi, Paderewski-Bydgoszcz Competition and the Santa Cecília International Piano Competition. Most recently, he was awarded second prize and the audience prize at the 76th Concours de Genève as well as first prize at the 1st Malaga City International Piano Competition.
He has performed as a soloist in such venues as Victoria Concert Hall (Geneva), Abravanel Hall (Salt Lake City), Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Carnegie Hall (New York City), Sala Suggia at Casa da Música (Porto), Bass Performance Hall (Fort Worth), the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (Kansas City), Salle Gaveau (Paris), Henri Le Boeuf Hall BOZAR (Brussels), Palau de la Música Catalana and L'Auditori (Barcelona), TivoliVredenburg (Utrecht), Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Tchaikovsky Philharmonic Hall (Moscow), Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, Keimyung Arts Center (Daegu), Sydney Conservatory of Music, and the Grand Hall at the Liszt Academy (Budapest), among many others.
Sergey is currently pursuing a Soloklasse diploma at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover with Arie Vardi. Prior, he studied with Stanislav Ioudenitch, Eliso Virsaladze, and Lev Natochenny.
Belyavsky has released four solo CDs, most recently of Schubert and Liszt’s music, called “The Wanderer” on the KNS Classical label. belyavskysergey.com