Acclaimed Israeli-American pianist Ory Shihor performs Beethoven’s Most Beloved Sonatas, including four of the composers most cherished sonatas, when he returns to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, April 4, 2020, 7:30 pm, at The Wallis’ Bram Goldsmith Theater. The “boldly individualistic” pianist (The New York Times) is featured on Beethoven’s exquisite Pathetique, Moonlight, Tempest and Appassionata and also provides some of his own personal observations about the sonatas. As the world celebrates the 250th Anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, the program illuminates the composer’s extraordinary musical influence.
Shihor, noted for his strong flexible technique as a pianist, is “not afraid to takes risks” (The Washington Post). As a concert pianist, he has impressed audiences and critics from coast to coast and throughout Europe, Australia and Asia. A world renowned pedagogue as well, Shihor is the founder and CEO of the Los Angeles-based Ory Shihor Institute, which offers training and certification programs for piano teachers and students, online courses and a pre-college program for gifted young pianists. Prior to opening his own institute, Shihor was dean of the Colburn Music Academy, which he founded in 2010, and served as professor of piano at the Colburn Conservatory for 10 years. He has served as juror in significant international competitions and has given lectures and masterclasses at conservatories, universities and festivals around the globe. Shihor’s numerous awards and competition prizes include the Gina Bauchauer Prize, young Concert Artists International Auditions, Washington International Piano Competition and Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition. Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Shihor was a recipient of America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships from the age of 12. At 15, he came to the United States to study at the Curtis Institute of Music under the legendary pianist Jorge Bolet and later graduated from the Juilliard School, where his teacher was the renowned pedagogue Russell Sherman.