Solo piano works presented for Wednesday concert

John Kamfonas

John Kamfonas, the young Paris-based American pianist who was a favorite of local audiences before the Covid shutdown, performs an evening of “Preludes and Fantasies” Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. as the Greencastle Summer Music Festival continues its series of weekly indoor concerts in Gobin Church.

Wednesday’s program includes solo piano works by Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Mompu, Rewski and Kamfonas himself. This summer’s festival will continue next Wednesday with an evening with Cathie Malach and Friends, and conclude on Aug. 17 with the Tad Robinson Band.

There’s no admission charge for GSMF concerts, which are made possible by pay-what-you-can donations at the programs, contributions from a growing family of individual donors, an endowment at the Putnam County Community Foundation, a grant from the Putnam County Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Inn at DePauw.

Embracing his penchant for improvisation alongside his passion for the classical and contemporary repertoire, American pianist Kamfonas has given performances around the world, from New York to India, Paris to Beijing, which have been described as possessing “a grandeur that lifted the music into the sublime ... and a delicacy that took one’s breath away.” (National Herald, New York)

Recent solo concerts include performances at Merkin Hall (New York), Benderly-Kendall Opera House (Arizona), Salle Cortot (Paris), Aspen Music Festival, Beijing International Music Festival, and Atlantic Music Festival. Residing in Paris since 2013, Kamfonas has conducted performance residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts (2018, 2021) and at the Fondation des Etats-Unis (2014-2017) as a Harriet Hale Woolley fellow where part of his 2016 solo recital was broadcast nationally on French TV channel TF1.

As a frequent collaborator, Kamfonas has premiered works by world renowned composers, including George Tsontakis, Eric Ewazen and Victor Kioulaphides whose piano trio had its world premiere in 2012. Seeking projects that explore the intersection between improvisation and composition, he performed “Engrenages” by Alexandros Markeas as an improvising soloist with the Versailles conservatory saxophone quartet in 2017. The following year, Kamfonas toured the U.S. with cellist Eric Edberg, presenting duo improvisations and the complete cello and piano works by American composer Alan Hovhaness.