A TEMPORAL ARC OF CENTURIES AT THE PIANO IN THE MUSEU ROMÂNTICO

The VI International Piano Festival Sta. Cecília returns to the Museu Romântico do Porto with its concert series, taking place from March 1 to May 10, 2026, every Sunday at 4:00 PM. Over the course of ten recitals, the festival reaffirms its mission to promote outstanding emerging pianists from the international scene, fostering encounters between different schools, cultures, and artistic sensibilities. There will be no concert on Easter Sunday, April 5.

The opening concert on March 1 holds particular significance: a special double recital featuring Luca Newman (United Kingdom/Japan) and Adam Znamirovský (Czech Republic), with free admission, subject to venue capacity. They are followed by Dmytro Semykras (Ukraine), Francisco Vilar (Portugal), Haiting Ning (China), Ionah Maiatsky (France), Monica Zhang (Italy), Geonhee Lee (South Korea), Nicolas Bourdoncle (France), Ziyu Shao (China), and Viktoria Baskakova (Russia), many of whom have been prizewinners and laureates of the International Sta. Cecília Competition throughout its various editions, shaping a cycle of remarkable artistic and cultural diversity.

The programme traverses the great piano repertoire, from the formal rigor of the Baroque to the expressiveness of Romanticism, extending into the languages of the 20th century. Works by Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn and Beethoven engage in dialogue with the lyricism and poetic depth of Chopin, Schumann, Schubert and Liszt, while Debussy and Ravel reveal sound worlds of great subtlety and tonal imagination. Modernity and dramatic intensity are fully affirmed in works by Prokofiev, Scriabin, de Falla and Mompou.

Promises of contrast, between virtuosity and expressive intensity, uniting tradition and contemporaneity.