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Yulianna Avdeeva sits at a Steinway piano.

Yulianna Avdeeva presents “Chopin: Voyage”

September 27, 2024

Recording projects continue to be an essential program at Tippet Rise. Fourteen years after her victory at the XVI International Chopin Piano Competition, pianist Yulianna Avdeeva spent two weeks at Tippet Rise last February to record her latest album “Chopin: Voyage.” The album focuses on the composer’s later works.

Yulianna Avdeeva made her Tippet Rise debut during the 2022 concert season and returned in 2023, delighting audiences with each performance and providing us with a treasure trove of footage from her concerts. Since her fateful win at the Chopin competition, Avdeeva has generated a devoted following, of both her solo recitals and orchestral performances. She maintains an active touring schedule throughout the year.

Produced by Bernhard Güttler for Pentatone, “Chopin: Voyage” is available for purchase, streaming, and as high-resolution downloads in our Music Download Library. During Yulianna’s time at Tippet Rise, she also created a performance film of her playing Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58. This as well as behind-the-scenes videos about the winter recording session are available to watch here.

Avdeeva recorded the album on the art center’s Steinway CD-18, which was Vladimir Horowitz’s personal piano and is the piano Eugene Istomin played with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, for Columbia’s 1956 recording of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18.

Many thanks to our dear friend Yulianna Avdeeva for collaborating with Tippet Rise to make this special record!

Fourteen years after my victory at the XVI International Chopin Piano Competition, I feel the strongest desire to document my journey with the music of Fryderyk Chopin.

The music of Chopin has a unique place in my soul. For me, it captures the subtlest nuances of the human experience; just like a leaf on a tree appears plain green at first, yet reveals a spectrum of hues when touched by the wind, Chopin’s compositions unveil layers of emotion and meaning with the unfolding of each note.”

His music is a constant source of revelation, a journey of perpetual rediscovery. After being immersed in Chopin’s scores for years, my perception of his music continues to be transformed — that process will always accompany me. This album depicts the late works of Chopin: the amazing Piano Sonata No. 3, op. 58; the Mazurkas, op. 59; the Barcarolle in F-sharp major, op. 60; the Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major, op. 61; and the last Nocturnes, op. 62. Each work is a masterpiece in its own right and I admire every single note in it.

Chopin wrote most of his major last compositions surrounded by nature. I am grateful for the opportunity to immerse myself in the serenity of nature too, as I bring these masterpieces to life at the one and only Tippet Rise Art Center, in Montana.

Yulianna Avdeeva

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Photography by Kevin Kinzley