Beethoven Piano Concerto Marathon

All Five Beethoven Piano Concertos in Two Different Programs
Over One Weekend

Saturday, January 17, 2026 | 7:30 PM

Sunday, January 18, 2026 | 3:00 PM

The Granada Theatre

Concert Duration (includes a 20-minute Intermission):
(Sat) Approximately 80 minutes
(Sun) Approximately 100 minutes

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PROGRAM

Attend "Conversations with KUSC"

Saturday Pre-Concert Chat | 6:30-7:00 PM
Sunday Pre-Concert Chat | 2:00-2:30 PM

Coming in January
Saturday Program Notes
Sunday Program Notes
Digital Program

Alongside his Symphonies, the Piano Concertos of Beethoven have been towering masterworks for two centuries. Nir Kabaretti and The Symphony present all five of Beethoven’s Concertos across a single weekend. From the youthful First Piano Concerto, composed at age 25, to the grand “Emperor” Concerto written in the war-torn Vienna of 1809. Each is performed by a medalist from a prestigious international piano competition.

The Artists

Nir Kabaretti, Conductor

Soloists, 5 winners & medalists of different international piano competitions

Dmitry Shishkin, Piano

Angie Zhang, Piano

Min Joo Yi, Piano

Evren Ozel, Piano

Jonathan Mamora, Piano

Repertoire

CONCERTO NO. 1 (Sun) Dmitry Shishkin (International Tchaikovsky and Geneva International competitions)

CONCERTO NO. 2 (Sun) Angie Zhang (American Piano Awards)

CONCERTO NO. 3 (Sat) Min Joo Yi (Academy of the West piano competition)

CONCERTO NO. 4 (Sat) Evren Ozel (Cleveland International competition)

CONCERTO NO. 5 (Sun) Jonathan Mamora (Palm Springs International Piano Competition)

Dmitry Shishkin, Piano

Silver Medal at the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition and winner of the 73rd Geneva International Music Competition, Dmitry Shishkin has been acclaimed for both his creative and individual approach to music. He has been defined by the critics as a “electrifying and flamboyant pianist, of great musical honesty and rigor.”

Angie Zhang, Piano

American pianist Dr. Angie Zhang is recognized as one of her generation’s true artists. She is a top prizewinner in numerous competitions, including the International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments, American Piano Awards, Honens, and a three-time winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition.

Read more about Angie Zhang

She has graced notable festivals and concert series such as the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, La Jolla Music Society, Perlman Music Program, Music@Menlo, Sarasota Music Festival, and Aspen Music Festival. She is also the Grand Prize Winner of the Music Academy of the West’s Innovation Institute Competition.

As a recitalist and chamber musician, she has performed in a myriad of major venues across four continents to great acclaim. She has also been a soloist over 40 times with professional orchestras including the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic, Indianapolis Chamber and Symphony Orchestras, Juilliard Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, Missouri Symphony Orchestra, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, and many more. Conductors include herself, Fabio Luisi, Jeffrey Kahane, JoAnn Falletta, Jose Antonio Molina, Kirk Trevor, and others. Repertoire includes the entire Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff concerti.

As a collaborative pianist, she has performed the entire works of Beethoven for cello and piano with Zlatomir Fung, and worked with many artists including Martin Beaver, Sterling Elliott, and Xavier Foley. She has shared the stage with the Dover Quartet, Aeolus Quartet, Itzhak Perlman, Inon Barnaton, Tessa Lark, Stefan Jackiw, and more. Her collaborative precision and deep understanding of the music has won her numerous accolades and praise by institutions, competitions, and artistic directors.

She has also commissioned and performed over 50 new works. She has also championed works by female, BIPOC, and non-binary composers, as well as underplayed works that deserve more attention on both fortepiano and modern piano.

Through her performances, educational ventures, and community engagement, she skillfully brings together diverse groups of people, demonstrating her commitment to uniting audiences through music in a contemporary manner. She is the founder and co-director of the ModernPlus Music Festival and founder of MusicFitness. Dr. Zhang is also an accomplished and acclaimed fortepianist and leading American figure in period instruments.

Her two-disc CD of Chopin works on an original Graf and Pleyel, including the E minor Concerto with period orchestra, is produced by the Polish National Institute of Frederic Chopin. It has been praised as truly “…respecting and brilliantly realising the notations of the composer’s text, caring for elegance and nobility of sound, putting as much sensitivity as possible inter her interpretations…will more than once have the chance to enchant world audiences with her art,” by Marcin Majchrowski.

Dr. Zhang holds a Bachelor of Music (BM) and Master of Music (MM) from The Juilliard School, as well as a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) from the University of Michigan and a second MM in fortepiano performance. She won the top graduation awards at both institutions upon graduation, as well as academic honors from both, and chamber honors from Juilliard. Her influential teachers include Veda Kaplinsky, Logan Skelton, Joseph Kalichstein, Emanuel Ax, Malcolm Bilson, and Tobias Koch. She is a Bosendorfer and Yamaha Worldwide Artist.

Min Joo Yi, Piano

From Bellevue, Washington, Min Joo Yi is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Musical Arts with Professor Yong-Hi Moon at Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, with a graduate assistantship in accompanying. She also received her Master of Music (MM) and Graduate Performance Diploma degrees (GPD) at Peabody. She received her bachelor’s degree (AB) in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, along with a music performance certificate, at Princeton University. Her former teachers include Francine Kay, Duane Hulbert, and Michi North.

Evren Ozel, Piano

American pianist Evren Ozel has established himself as a musician of “refined restraint” (Third Coast Review), combining fluent virtuosity with probing, thoughtful interpretations. Having performed extensively in the United States and abroad, Evren is the recipient of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, 2022 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, and is currently represented by Concert Artists Guild as an Ambassador Prize Winner of their 2021 Victor Elmaleh Competition.

Jonathan Mamora, Piano

Acclaimed for his “most assured pianism,” and “natural, songful lyricism” (The Dallas Morning News), pianist and educator Jonathan Mamora strives to uplift and positively influence others using music as a means for service. An Indonesian-American and Southern California native, he was first enrolled in piano lessons by his parents with a goal of becoming a church musician.

Read more about Jonathan Mamora

Now with a burgeoning performing career, Jonathan’s commitment to service is steadfast—whether playing in church or in the community or on the concert stage.

Jonathan has performed throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia, and he has enjoyed remarkable recent success, winning first prize at numerous prominent international piano competitions (IPC’s), including: Hilton Head IPC; Scottish IPC; Concurs Internacional de Música Maria Canals Barcelona; Olga Kern IPC (New Mexico); AntwerPiano International Competition; Dallas IPC; and the Palm Springs IPC (formerly the Virginia Waring). In May 2025, he performs as one of 30 elite pianists invited to compete in the Van Cliburn IPC in Fort Worth, TX.

His May 2023 debut recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall drew great praise from the New York Concert Review: “Mr. Mamora’s playing itself is larger than life…(with) a technique so solid that it seemed at times that he couldn’t play a wrong note if he tried (and)…an encyclopedic array of dynamics and articulations.” He returns to Weill Hall in October 2025 for a recital presented by the HHIPC, and other current recital engagements include: the L’Auditori Festival Emergents in Barcelona; Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow; Bachauer Festival in Salt Lake City; Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, and Savannah Music Festival in Georgia.

Following his concerto debut at age 13 with the La Sierra University Orchestra, Jonathan has gone on to perform with such orchestras as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, New Mexico Philharmonic, Simfònica Sant Cugat, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, and Dallas Chamber Symphony, among others. Upcoming concerto engagements include: Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, Greenville Symphony Orchestra, and the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra.

Jonathan has served as a church musician much of his life, most recently as Music Director and Organist at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Clifton Springs, NY. He often performs as a collaborative pianist for vocalists, instrumentalists, ensembles, and choirs, and has received the Eastman ‘Excellence in Accompanying’ Award. In addition to piano and organ, he also performs as a percussionist, vocalist, historical keyboardist (harpsichord, fortepiano), and conductor.

Jonathan values education as an important tool in music making. He previously taught piano and music theory/ear training for various institutions, including the Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School, and has conducted master classes in North and South America, and Europe. He will serve as Director of Keyboard Studies at La Sierra University starting in fall 2025.

Jonathan Mamora is a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Douglas Humpherys, whom he served as studio assistant. He received his Bachelor of Music from La Sierra University and his Master of Music from The Juilliard School. His previous piano teachers include Elvin Rodríguez and Hung-Kuan Chen.

Beethoven Piano Concerto Marathon