Candlelight Voyage
Returning for a second year, after sold-out performances in 2024 with Missing Piece, pianist and composer Shi-An Costello will hold a solo residency at Colvin House for four consecutive Thursdays in May 2025, presenting musical portraits of composers Frédéric Chopin and John Cage.
Focusing the performances and speaking around the musical and personal lives of these two composers, the residency will provide a deep dive and complete performance of two pillars of piano repertoire: Frédéric Chopin’s beautiful and virtuosic 12 Études, Op. 10 (1833), and John Cage’s playful and vibrant Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (1948). Each evening will include 3 Chopin Études and 4 Cage Sonatas, interspersed with speaking and performances of other works by Chopin and Cage, to illustrate rich connections between the music and each composer’s life and times. The Cage performances are part of Costello’s “Alloy prepared piano project,” which is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Please note that the Candlelight Voyage will begin at 7 p.m. to help create the candlelight ambiance for the evening.
Set 1: Frédéric Chopin’s Études, Op. 10, Nos. 10, 11, and 12 ("Revolutionary"); related works by Chopin
Set 2: John Cage’s Sonatas XV-XX, Interlude IV; related works by Cage
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About the Artist
Shi-An Costello - artist-in-residence and curator
About the Performer:
Described as “steely and granitic… dreamy and sensitive …a tour de force…” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), pianist Shi-An Costello has trailblazed a path truly unique, with repertoire that spans the aesthetic sensibilities of four centuries, from J.S. Bach to Morton Feldman, from Frederic Chopin to Brian Ferneyhough. In recent years, Mr. Costello has appeared in recital with members of Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Toronto, Minnesota, Milwaukee, Winnipeg, Honolulu, and Thunder Bay Symphonies, the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, and the Musical Pathways Initiative of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In his youth, Costello was a piano and theory student under Vladimir Leyetchkiss, one of the last pupils of the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus, and a trombone student under Richard Schmitt, former principal of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Former faculty of Boston Conservatory at Berklee and New Music School, Costello currently teaches a small private studio in Chicago.