Keys to Success: The Piano – SAT, July 19, 2025 at 7:00PM

The modern piano is a highly versatile instrument that by itself is capable of playing almost anything an orchestra can play. It is able to project a tremendous range of nuance and expression, creating all musical styles and moods, with enough volume to be heard through almost any musical ensemble. By the end of the 19th century it had become the central instrument of music pedagogy and amateur study, and virtually no middle-class household of any stature in Europe or North America was without one. Most of the major Western composers from Mozart onward have played it, many as virtuosi, and the piano repertory—whether solo, chamber, or with orchestra—is at the heart of Western classical performance. Using a mixture of lecture and performance, we will examine the history of the piano, from its humble beginnings in the early 1700s, through the many developments and innovations in construction during the 18th and 19th centuries, to the instruments of the last 100 years, with their immense variety of sizes and styles. We will see how composers, performers, craftsmen, and entrepreneurs inspired and drove each other forward, resulting in instruments that can present the technically demanding and richly expressive Romantic works of such greats as Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninov, and many others that we enjoy today.