Janice Carissa plays Enrique Granados: El Pelele

Janice Carissa is one of the most compelling young pianists to emerge in years — a 2022 Gilmore Young Artist and winner of the Salon de Virtuosi, hailed for playing that "conveys a vivid story rather than a mere showpiece" and possessing what the Philadelphia Inquirer called "the multicolored highlights of a mature pianist." Born in Indonesia, she made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut at sixteen and has since performed from the Sydney Opera House to Carnegie Hall. This afternoon marks her San Francisco recital debut, and her program is as carefully constructed as it is wide-ranging: two Philip Glass Etudes bookend the first half, framing Bach's luminous French Suite No. 5, a piece written for Carissa by her friend and colleague Eunike Tanzil, and Rzewski's thunderous Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues. After intermission, Prokofiev's monumental Sonata No. 8 brings the afternoon home. It is a program that honors tradition while pulling hard against it — exactly the kind of artist we love to bring to Noe Music.

The Sekhri Piano Series presents world-class solo piano recitals on Noe Music's magnificent Steinway Model D — up close, in the intimate setting of the Noe Valley Ministry. The series is generously endowed by brothers Neil and Paul Sekhri in memory of their mother Betty, a devoted Noe Music patron and lifelong lover of the piano.