Pianists invited to celebrate Beethoven’s birthday with Aberdeen Performing Arts

As the musical world prepares to celebrate 250 years since the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, arts charity Aberdeen Performing Arts is set to mark the occasion with a celebration that showcases the talent of today’s musicians.

Beethoven is widely acknowledged as one of the most significant and impactful musicians ever to have lived.

His 32 piano sonatas have been described as the ‘New Testament’ of piano music and represent one of the most important and diverse collections of music for a single instrument ever composed.

Many of the world’s leading pianists have performed or recorded the complete cycle, and now Aberdeen Performing Arts are offering the chance to contribute to the latest and most innovative collection of these seminal works.

Under the banner Beethoven 250: Cyber Sonatas, submissions of recorded performances will be collated as a body of work and shared on a specially created You Tube playlist.

Aberdeen Performing Arts Director of Programming and Creative Projects, Ben Torrie has kicked things off by recording his own performance

He said: “We’re excited to offer pianists of all abilities the chance to take part in marking this historic occasion.

"We want to demonstrate the passion and joy these majestic pieces evoke in musicians of all ages and experiences.

"By the date of his 250th birthday on December 16, 2020 we hope to have collected at least one performance of each sonata movement.”

Pianists everywhere are encouraged to film themselves performing a movement of any of the 32 sonatas and send it by email or file transfer to beethoven250@aberdeenperformingarts.com to be part of the collection and shared online.

Current submissions to the Beethoven 250: Cyber Sonatas project can be viewed at https://bit.ly/3cnTcq2

The project is part of Aberdeen Performing Arts’ Here For You initiative, which provides fun and interesting ways for audiences and participants to stay engaged which its venue are closed.

More info is available at www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/here-for-you.