Part of Chetham’s International Piano Summer School 2026.
Between Wednesday 12 – Saturday 22 August, Chetham’s International Piano Summer School brings world class and legendary musicians to a vibrant, supportive community in central Manchester, now celebrating it’s 25th anniversary year. Alongside lectures, open lessons and opportunities to develop new skills, you can discover a daily programme of recitals from world-class performers.
Seating for these events will be unallocated. If you have any access requirements, please do let us know at boxoffice@stollerhall.com or on 0333 130 0967. You can find out more about access in our building here. Our venue will be open half an hour before each public performance and will close in between performances.
Day Eight
Young Artist’s Recital, 1.45pm-2.30pm
Tickets £5.50. Students/U18 Free
Today we welcome three talented young pianists in an exciting programme.
Nadiia Dotsiak:
Victor KOSENKO Two Poem-Legends, Op. 12
Myroslav SKORYK Burlesque
Frederick Johnston:
PROKOFIEV Romeo and Juliet Op. 75: No. 6, The Montagues and the Capulets
York BOWEN 24 Preludes Op. 102: No. 7 in Eb Major
Takashi YOSHIMATSU Piano Folio… To a Disappeared Pleiad
Chiara Lordi:
LISZT Ballade No. 2
Piano Summer School Lecture – From Stress to Strength: For a Life Well-Lived as Musicians by Mookie Lee-Menuhin, 5.15pm-6pm
Tickets £11.50, Students/U18 £5.50
The classical music field still subscribes to a myth: that talent is mainly innate — a gift granted at birth to a lucky few. Combined with a near-total lack of mental training and a culture of externally-driven validation, it compels many to chase a golden formula for mastery and success — one that too often leaves them depleted and burned out instead.
Drawing on her own performing career and the latest brain research, concert pianist and neuroscientist Mookie Lee-Menuhin challenges that myth — and explains why uncertainty, especially when uncontrollable and socially evaluated, is one of the brain’s biggest stressors. That may explain the staggering mental health crisis among musicians, affecting not only their performance but also their daily life.
Her message: stress itself isn’t the enemy. The same stress activation becomes either threat or fuel depending on how it’s interpreted — so how you relate to it is a choice, and awareness enables you to bring that choice into action.
She shares five practical, science-backed tools you can use immediately — in the practice room, backstage, and on stage — opening the door to liberation.
As she puts it, this is “the art of meeting life with awareness, intention, connection, and meaning” — not a set of stress-management tips, but a way of reclaiming agency over the pressure built into this profession.
A Recital by Joanna MacGregor, 7pm
Tickets £22.50, Students/U18 £5.50
‘MacGregor seems incapable of giving performances that are not at once extremely intelligent and entertaining’. – The Sunday Times
‘She is one of the most exciting and enterprising pianists of the moment.’ – The Observer
‘Joanna MacGregor’s career is practically built on a reinvention of the star virtuoso tradition… MacGregor’s verve, energy and astounding technique are always at the service of the music.’ – BBC Classical Review
Leonid DESYATNIKOV Songs of Bukovina
Leonid DESYATNIKOV 24 Preludes for Piano (2017)
A Recital with Piers Lane, 8.30pm
Tickets £22.50, Students/U18 £5.50
“No praise could be high enough for Piers Lane whose playing throughout is of a superb musical intelligence, sensitivity, and scintillating brilliance.” Bryce Morrison, Gramophone
We are thrilled that Piers is available to join us again at Chetham’s for a solo recital and teaching on the faculty.
Five times soloist at the BBC Proms, Piers Lane’s wide-ranging concerto repertoire exceeds one hundred works and has led to engagements with many of the world’s great orchestras, working recently with conductors like Sir Andrew Davis, Vassily Sinaisky, Gerard Schwartz and Brett Dean. Festival appearances have included Aldeburgh, Bard, Bath Mostly Mozart, Bergen, Cheltenham, Como Autumn Music, Prague Spring, Rockport, La Roque d’Anthéron, Ruhr Klavierfestival, Schloss vor Husum, Seattle and the Chopin festivals in Warsaw, Duszniki-Zdrój, Mallorca and Paris.
Peter TRANCHELL Seven Pieces
1. Peacock 2. Rainy Season Bird 3. Goat 4. Crane 5. Cuckoo 6. Frog 7. Elephant
CHOPIN Prelude in C# minor Op.45
CHOPIN 24 Preludes Op.28
