The French Aux Jacobins Piano Festival will land in Shanghai for the fourth time from May 29 to 31.

Acclaimed French pianists Edouard Ferlet, Romain Descharmes and Stephen Kovacevich will star in the series of concerts. Dating back nearly 40 years, the French festival celebrating piano music at the very peak, Piano Aux Jacobins has long been welcomed in the city for its quality programs and performers. For the upcoming festival, Ferlet will deliver the introduction.

Graduating in 1992 from the Berklee College of Music, Ferlet won the best jazz pianist of Berklee Jazz performance award. And then he started composing commissioned pieces for films, short films, documentaries, choreographies, and theater. His first piano solo album "Par tous les temps" released in 2004 received high praise from the public and the media.

Ferlet's jazz piano includes some elements of Latin music, modern jazz and his own free style.

The following day, Descharmes will play Mozart's "Sonate K311 in D major," Schumann's "Novelette No. 8," Ravel's "La Valse," Chopin's "Ballade No. 1" and "Valse No. 2" and Rzewski's "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blue." Born in 1980, Descharmes was awarded first prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition in 2006, leading him to give recitals at prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall in New York. He is renowned for his attentive, sensitive playing and wide repertoire, which ranges from sonatas to larger ensemble pieces, as well as lieder, of which he is particularly fond.

The last concert on May 31 is reserved for the maestro Kovacevich.

As a pianist, Kovacevich has won unsurpassed admiration for his playing of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Schubert. In addition to his long and distinguished career as a soloist, he has conducted for many years, winning warm praise for his work with orchestras throughout the world in repertoire from the 18th and 19th centuries. He will play Schubert's "Sonata in A major D959" and Beethoven's "Diabelli Variations" in his concert.

Jazz Piano Recital by Edouard Ferlet

Date: May 29, 7:45pm

Piano Recital by Romain Descharmes

Date: May 30, 7:45pm

Piano Recital by Stephen Kovacevich

Date: May 31, 7:45pm

Venue: Shanghai Oriental Art Center, 425 Dingxiang Rd, Pudong

Tickets: 60-300 yuan

(Shanghai Daily May 20, 2009)