Virtuoso artists return to Vashon with PianoFéte
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Note by glorious note, PianoFête 2026, a rare annual festival devoted to two-piano repertoire, will unfold on Vashon from July 8 to 11.
The festival — a signature event for Vashon Center for the Arts now in its fifth year — is made up of a melange of ingredients: its island setting in high summer, an intimate concert hall, two Steinway concert grands and four internationally acclaimed artists who take the stage in various combinations.
Following three nights of performances ranging from solo showpieces to four and eight-hand piano performances, PianoFête’s grand finale — with both live and virtual orchestra accompaniment — will bring the series to a thundering close.
PianoFête is curated by award-winning pianist, transcriber and composer Vyacheslav Gryaznov, more familiarly known as “Slava” to islanders who have flocked to his repeated residencies in VCA’s Katherine L. White Hall.
Drawing on his international career and connections, Gryaznov has invited three renowned colleagues to join him on Vashon — Konstantin Soukhovetski, Rexa Han and Daria Kiseleva.
All are laureates of prestigious international competitions and sought-after musicians in leading venues worldwide, as well as veterans of past PianoFête editions.
From PianoFête’s beginnings in 2021, Gryaznov said, the festival has had a special spirit, drawing him to return year after year. “It is not only a series of concerts, but a real gathering of friends, colleagues and listeners around the piano,” he said. “Vashon has always given us a rare atmosphere — focused, warm, intimate and very human — where music can feel both serious and joyful at the same time.”
Soukhovetski, Han and Kiseleva also described their time on Vashon as being filled with both respite and revelation.
“Our process of putting the concerts together is unlike anything else in my experience,” Soukhovetski said. “I love that we have the entire theater to ourselves for a week. There is something spellbinding about rehearsing on a dimly lit stage, with all the seats empty, as though they are waiting to receive the newborn life from the stage.”
Han hailed PianoFête’s audiences for their warmth and engagement. “The standing ovations have always felt less like applause and more like a shared embrace,” she said.
Kiseleva, too, said she relished both the artistic process of the festival and her interactions with those who attend it.
“PianoFête always becomes more than a festival,” she said. “It becomes a space of true human connection through music.”
Find out more and purchase tickets at vashoncenterforthearts.org. Individual tickets are $42 for adults and free for youths 18 and younger. Find out if discounted full-festival passes ($125 for adults and free for youth) are still available by calling 206-259-3007 or visiting the box office, open 12-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday, at 19600 Vashon Highway SW.
PianoFête: Day by Day
With a repertoire that travels from Old World legend to American celebration, PianoFête 2026 will explore the shape-shifting capability of one instrument to find expression in many forms, according to Gryaznov. “The piano is never only one thing,” he said. “In the hands of imaginative performers, it can become a whole orchestra, a storyteller, a dance ensemble, a private confession, a jazz band, a Broadway stage or a partner in a new kind of concerto experience.”
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 8
“The Piano as Orchestra,” performed by all four PianoFéte artists, will include Glinka’s Overture to “Ruslan and Lyudmila”; Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances; Rimsky-Korsakov’s Suite from “The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh”; Smetana’s “Má vlast”; Dvorak’s “Slavonic Dances, Op. 72, Nos. 1 and 2” and Rossini’s “William Tell Overture.”
The concert, Gryaznov said, will celebrate “grand musical storytelling — heroic overtures, folk dances, legends, landscapes and theatrical finales.”
7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 9
“Beethoven: The Last Door,” with Konstantin Soukhovetski and Daria Kiseleva, will explore Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111. “This is the festival’s intimate evening: a space for reflection, concentration and the extraordinary emotional world of late Beethoven,” said Gryaznov.
7:30 p.m. Friday, July 10
“Childhood, Elegance, Jazz and Broadway,” with Rexa Han and Vyacheslav Gryaznov, will embrace French fantasy, childhood memory, jazz virtuosity and the electric pulse of Broadway. The program includes Ravel’s “Ma mère l’Oye/Mother Goose”; Fauré’s “Dolly Suite”; Kapustin’s “Sinfonietta” and Bernstein’s “West Side Story Suite.”
The concert, Gryaznov said, will “show the piano duo as a theatrical instrument — capable of delicacy, elegance, humor, swing and dazzling ensemble precision.”
7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 11
PianoFête’s grand finale will bring all four pianists together with the Vashon-Maury Chamber Orchestra and GPhil — a virtual orchestra platform developed by Gryaznov which allows musicians to play instrumental concertos with a virtual orchestra. The program includes a world premiere composition with GPhil, Strauss’ “Blue Danube Waltz” and “Kalinka’s Variations” — Gryaznov’s arrangement of a Russian folk song.
Then, joined by the Vashon-Maury Chamber Orchestra, the pianists — all of whom are immigrants — will offer up a heartfelt eight-hands Tribute to America Suite.
Celebrating the history, landscapes and rhythms of the place these celebrated pianists now call home, the program will include “Prelude — Anthem”; “Yankee Doodle”; “America the Beautiful”; “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy“; American Salute” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
PianoFête Company
Vyacheslav Gryaznov, a concert pianist, composer and arranger, is a prize-winner of international competitions in Italy, Ukraine, Denmark, Georgia, Japan and Russia.
He has performed throughout Europe, the United States, Japan, Africa and Russia, and is the author of more than 40 concert arrangements for piano and various ensembles. In 2005, he signed a publishing contract with Schott Music.
His latest album, featuring Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and his own “Rhapsody in Black,” written on themes from “Porgy and Bess,” is recorded on the Aparté label as played by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under conductor Wayne Marshall. His previous recordings include “Western Transcriptions” (Master Performers, 2021) and “Russian Transcriptions” (Steinway & Sons, 2018).
In 2020, Vyacheslav created GPhil, a virtual orchestra platform that allows musicians to practice and perform instrumental concertos live.
Konstantin Soukhovetski, a laureate of 17 international competitions, has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall and the Louvre, and appears widely in recital and with orchestras across the United States and Europe.
Highlights of his 2025–26 season include a tour of Scotland with Absolute Classics, featuring concerto and solo appearances, and the Scottish premiere of his acclaimed “The Pride Suite” — six piano works representing the colors of the Pride Flag.
He also continues his noted Narrative Musicales at Grand Piano Series in Naples, Florida — immersive programs blending music, storytelling and visual elements.
Soukhovetski’s work also spans composition, libretti, and interdisciplinary collaborations in dance and film. His recording of “Yuliya: Forgotten Songs of Julie Weissberg Rimsky-Korsakov,” with soprano Sarah Moulton-Faux, is released on Azica Records.
Soukhovetski serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School and is Director of Education and Community Engagement at Grand Piano Series. He is also a voting member of the Grammy Recording Academy. Born to a family of artists in Moscow, Russia, Soukhovetski began his musical journey at the Moscow Central Special Music School.
Rexa Han was born in China and is now based in the United States. She began performing at the age of five and has since appeared across Europe, North America, and Asia in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. A first prize winner of the Kosciuszko Chopin International Piano Competition in New York, she was granted the United States “Extraordinary Ability” green card under the recommendation of Van Cliburn.
She studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Manhattan School of Music, and later earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
Han is also the creator of New Extravaganza, an intimate contemporary reimagining of the salon. Her recordings include “A Tribute to the Piano,” released under the Concert Artists Guild, and “Déjà vu,” released in Italy under Palermo Classica. Daria Kiseleva has won top prizes at international competitions in Rio de Janeiro and Paris, as well as honors from other competitions across the United States and Europe.
She has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in venues including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, in New York, and Salle Cortot, in Paris.
Recently, she has appeared with the McKinney Philharmonic Orchestra and the Mesquite Symphony Orchestra, and is active in chamber music collaborations throughout the Dallas–Fort Worth area.
Her festival appearances include the International Keyboard Odyssiad & Festival, in Colorado, and Londrina and Virtuosí Gravatá festivals, in Brazil.
She is an educator with Cliburn in the Classroom, bringing music outreach programs to schools and young audiences across Texas.
Originally from Moscow, Russia, Kiseleva received her early musical training at the Gnessin College and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. She completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Texas Christian University in May 2026.
Elizabeth Shepherd is a former editor and reporter for The Beachcomber. She currently works as a freelance communications consultant for Vashon Center for the Arts.
