Artists in Conversation: Stephen Beus on the World of Nikolai Medtner — Miami Beach

Stephen Beus is one of today's most compelling interpreters of the music of Nikolai Medtner (1880–1951), a composer whose genius is only now receiving the wider recognition it deserves. In this Artists in Conversation evening, he combines live performance with his own insights into Medtner's world.

Medtner wrote for the piano in a language that asks for both extraordinary technical command and deep intellectual engagement: Russian Romantic expressiveness, complex contrapuntal textures, poetic intimacy and large-scale architecture. His sonatas, his Skazki (Fairy Tales) and his “Forgotten Melodies” draw a line between the Russian tradition of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, the rigor of Brahms and the poetic imagination of Schumann.

“Spectacular… it was like he had placed the orchestra in the middle of a gigantic centrifuge and pushed start.” (Copenhagen Post)

The artist

“Strikingly original… an interpretive voice all his own” (Fanfare). American pianist Stephen Beus won first prize at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition and the Vendome Prize in Lisbon within four months, made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Juilliard Orchestra, and has performed at Wigmore Hall, the Salle Gaveau and the Teatro San Carlo.

Tickets go on sale soon.

Artists in Conversation pairs live performance with the artists' own insights into the music, in the intimate setting of the Miami Beach Woman's Club.

About the Miami International Piano Festival

Founded in 1997 by Giselle Brodsky, the Miami International Piano Festival has built its reputation on discovering pianists of extraordinary individuality, through its concerts, its Academy, educational programs in the United States and Italy, recordings and masterclasses. Many artists it presented early have gone on to major international careers.