Steven Osborne closes our season the way a great season should end: with a pianist who makes you feel like you have never quite heard the piano before. Described by The Observer as “always a player in absolute service to the composer,” Osborne's awards include the Royal Philharmonic Society's Instrumentalist of the Year and two Gramophone Awards — and he was appointed OBE for his services to music. His program, “Reflections on the Waltz”, is exactly the kind of thing only he would think to do: Schumann's Papillons, Satie, Lili Boulanger, Lyadov, and Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales in the first half — then, after intermission, Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, thirty-three transformations of a modest waltz into one of the greatest architectural achievements in all of keyboard music. The Guardian has written that Osborne "has that special ability to make music that you thought you knew inside out seem fresh and totally alive." A perfect final note.

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.