International Fortepiano Salon
Conversation.
Performance.
Early pianos.
A unique online Fortepiano Salon gathering.
Engage with other early music lovers and enrich your knowledge about historical pianos and performance practice.
Your hosts
Patricia Garcia-Gil
Postdoctoral Associate & Artist in Residence,
Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards
Yi-heng Yang
Faculty, The Juilliard School
Maria Rose
Director, The Academy of Fortepiano Performance
Upcoming Salons:
Sunday April 27th, at 12pm EST
Malcolm Bilson: On Dotted Rhythms
Malcolm Bilson has been in the forefront of the period-instrument movement for over fifty years. A member of the Cornell Music Department from 1968, he began his pioneering activity in the early 1970s as a performer of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert on late 18th- and early 19th-century pianos. Since then he has proven to be a key contributor to the restoration of the fortepiano to the concert stage and to fresh recordings of the “mainstream” repertory. In addition to an extensive career as a soloist and chamber player, Bilson has toured with the English Baroque Soloists with John Eliot Gardiner, the Academy of Ancient Music with Christopher Hogwood, the Philharmonia Baroque under Nicholas McGegan, Tafelmusik of Toronto, Concerto Köln and other early and modern instrument orchestras around the world. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Bard College and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Mr. Bilson has recorded the three most important complete cycles of works for piano by Mozart: the piano concertos with John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, the piano-violin Sonatas with Sergiu Luca, and the solo piano sonatas. His traversal on period pianos of the Schubert piano sonatas (including the so-called incomplete sonatas) was completed in 2003, and in 2005 a single CD of Haydn sonatas appeared on the Claves label. In the fall of 1994 Bilson and six of his former artist-pupils from Cornell’s D.M.A. program in historical performance practice presented the 32 piano sonatas of Beethoven in New York City, the first time ever that these works had been given as a cycle on period instruments. The New York Times said that “what emerged in these performances was an unusually clear sense of how revolutionary these works must have sounded in their time.” The recording of this series garnered over fifty very positive reviews.
In addition to his activities in Cornell’s performance-practice program, Professor Bilson teaches piano to both graduate and undergraduate students. In the 1990s he was Adjunct Professor at the Eastman School of Music. He has given annual summer fortepiano workshops at various locations in the United States and Europe as well as master classes and lectures (generally in conjunction with solo performances) around the world. In his educational video entitled “Knowing the Score,” released in 2005, Bilson discusses the question: Do we really know how to read the notation of the so-called ‘classical’ masters?
Renowned fortepianist and scholar Malcolm Bilson, a leading figure in the revival of historical performance, will speak at the International Fortepiano Salon on April 27 at 12 PM. “I am delighted to be asked to speak to the International Fortepiano Salon this month,” he says. “I have been working for a time on a lecture about dotted rhythms, about which I have perhaps somewhat radical ideas, and which I hope will stimulate reactions from some of you.” Celebrated for his insightful interpretations and provocative scholarship, Bilson’s presentation promises to be both engaging and illuminating, featuring musical examples and video excerpts.
Sunday May 18th at 2 pm EST
Trailblazers: A New Generation of Asians in Early Music
Featuring Ruiqi Ren, baroque violinist , Hilda Huang, fortepianist, Alison Lau, vocalist
For Asian Pacific Islander month this May 2025, and as part of our Music and Ideas Series: Coming to the Table, the International Fortepiano Salon engages in conversation with, and highlights the creativity and vision of the next generation of early music leaders who come from an Asian background. We will be sharing some performances by our guests, as well as having conversations about their unique journeys and sense of identity and purpose in the classical early music field.
Hilda Huang, fortepianist and modern pianist, First Prize Winner of the Leipzig Bach Competition, Fulbright Scholar, Doctoral Candidate, The Juilliard School
Ruiqi Ren, modern and baroque violinist, international soloist, concertmaster Shanghai Camerata, editor-in-chief of Along, a bilingual magazine building cross cultural connections through music and art.
Alison Lau, vocalist, Nederlandse Bach Verereniging, Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Belinda in Il Gardellino’s concert version of Dido and Aeneas at the Royal Concertgebouw.
Watch Past Salons
Music and Ideas Series :
Coming to the Table
March 9, 2025
Karin Cuellar Rendon:
Women in South America
In this episode of the Fortepiano Salon celebrating Women’s history month, Bolivian violinist and researcher Karin Cuellar Rendon introduces us to pianist-composers who revolutionized music in South America: Brazilian Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847-1935), Bolivian Modesta Sanjines (1832-1883) and Venezuelan Teresa Careño (1853-1917). Join us in a conversation about the intersection of music and politics in 19th century nation building efforts by these brilliant composers.
Karin A. Cuellar Rendon is a Bolivian historical violinist and scholar currently residing in Montreal, Canada. Cuellar performs regularly with Montreal-based period ensembles such as Ensemble Caprice, Arion, Les Boreades, and L’Harmonie des Saison. Past collaborations have included Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment, Florilegium, Oxford Bach Soloists, Ex Cathedra, American Bach Soloists, Apollo’s Fire, ARTEK, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Bolivia. She is the founder of the Ximenez Quartet and was recently appointed artistic director of the International Baroque Music Festival “Misiones de Chiquitos,” in Bolivia. As an advocate for inclusion, diversity, equity, and access in early music, she serves as co-chair of Early Music America’s IDEA Task Force and serves as artistic director of ClassiqueInclusif, and initiative of Ensemble Caprice that won the 2024 Prix OPUS Montreal Inclusion et diversité. Cuellar earned a Master of Arts degree in Historical Performance from Case Western Reserve University under the guidance of Julie Andrijeski and Ross Duffin and obtained an Advanced Diploma on baroque violin from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied with Maggie Faultless, Rachel Podger, and Matthew Truscott as a beneficiary of the San Marino and Vincent Meyer scholarships. Cuellar is currently pursuing a PhD in Musicology at McGill University supported by the Fond de Recherche du Quebec with a research focus on performance practices in South America in the first half of the nineteenth century, using as a case study the music of Peruvian composer Pedro Ximenez Abrill Tirado (1784-1856).
February 9, 2025
Jean Bernard Cerin:
Three Black Voices in Forte-Piano History
In celebration of Black History Month, Jean Bernard Cerin joins the Forte-Piano Salon in a conversation about three trailblazing musicians from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries: Ignatius Sancho, Juste Chanlatte, and Carmen Brouard.
Jean Bernard Cerin is a multifaceted awarded artist and scholar who produces and performs in projects ranging from film, recital, oratorio, opera and folk music. Praised for his “burnished tone and focused phrasing,” (Chestnut Hill Local).
Jean Bernard founded the Lisette Project in 2021, which is a research and performance platform focusing on early Haitian classical music beginning with the oldest song in Haitian Creole, Lisette quitté la plaine. He serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of the Voice Program at Cornell University.
October 6, 2025
Pierre Goy and Matthieu Vion:
Sound Research and Developments in Fortepiano Making: the Experiments of Johann Andreas Stein in 1783
Johann Andreas Stein, Augsburg (1728-1792), was a leading figure in fortepiano construction. He conducted research into sound aesthetics and developed various keyboard instruments that combined the harpsichord and the fortepiano, culminating in a model of fortepiano that became the basis of the Viennese fortepiano. The year 1783 was decisive for his work, as can be seen from Stein's extant instruments (now in Naples, Boston, Leipzig, Trondheim and Switzerland), particularly in regard to the construction of fortepiano hammerheads.
The research project carried out within the framework of the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève (HEM) brought together an international team of instrument makers, organologists and performers. Its aim was to analyze the five Stein instruments dating from 1783, compare their construction, in particular their registers and hammerheads, and finally build a precise copy of an instrument in order to test the working hypotheses in practice. Based on these elements, Matthieu Vion's workshop was able to produce a replica. A book (published as part of the ‘Musiques & Matières’ collection, Haute école de musique de Genève-l'Œil d'or) will document the research process.
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September 29, 2024
Shuann Chai and Shunske Sato:
The Complete Beethoven's Sonatas for Piano and Violin on Period Instruments: Inside the Recording Project
Shuann Chai and Shunske Sato, a dynamic fortepiano-violin duo, visit with us virtually to discuss the process of playing and recording the complete piano and violin Sonatas of Beethoven on period instruments. Both musicians are leaders in 18th and 19th century history performance, and are sought after as soloists, conductor and leaders in many established period orchestras and ensembles throughout Europe, Asia and the US. Featured on the program is a pre-recorded video of Sato and Chai performing Beethoven's iconic "Kreutzer" Sonata for piano and violin.
*Photo by Marco Borggreve
May 19th, 2024
Keiko Shichijo: Mozart on the Stein Piano
Join us in a conversation with Keiko Shichijo around the Stein family of piano builders and learn about the André Stein square piano from ca.1800 that is being donated to the Piano Performance Museum in Hunter. This Salon, our 20th edition, includes a performance by the artist of Mozart’s Sonata in F major, K 332 on her Frère et Soeur Stein fortepiano from 1802, and Yi-heng Yang’s recent chamber music performances of the music of Schumann, as she announces the release (May 24th) of her group Trio Ilona’s upcoming album of Schumann Piano Trios on period instruments, by Deux-Elles recordings.
February 18th, 2024
Julia Bengstsson and Patricia Garcia Gil: Dancing the Minuet to the Fortepiano
The Baroque minuet contained all the musical attributes that would make it remain as the most popular dance form- whether to be danced or not- throughout the 18th century: a pleasing character, a simple texture, and regular, clearly delineated phrases. When playing minuets on the fortepiano, how do you make them dance? By asking a choreographer of course! Join choreographer Julia Bengtsson and fortepianist Patricia Garcia Gil in an exploration of the inherent connection between dance and music.
Sunday October 29, 2023
A Salon from the Geelvinck Collection, Netherlands
with guest artist
Lucie de Saint Vincent,
Specialist in music of French women composers www.luciedesaintvincent.com
and Geelvinck Collection director Jurn Buisman
View a Salon from September 10th, 2023
Guests at the Table: New Voices from the 18th c. Galant
The music of Jane Mary Guest (1762-1846) and Marianne Martines (1744-1812)
Our focus this episode was on two women composers of the galant era-- Jane Mary Guest and Marianne Martines-- whose music deserves to be heard and appreciated for their mastery of composition and authenticity of voice.
Featuring guest artist Aisslinn Nosky, violin, and fortepianist Patricia Garcia Gil, and your hosts Yi-heng Yang and Maria Rose
Pick a Topic, Watch a Past Salon
Sponsored by the Catskill Mountain Foundation
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