The Kettner Society presents rare opportunity to hear one of the world’s most exciting young pianists live and up close at our intimate and trendy venue in Manchester.

This recital is promoted by the charity Promote Our Pianists (POP) working together with Kettner Concerts to offer live performances to outstanding young pianists.

Praised as “a rising star of exceptional sensitivity and imagination”, Vietnamese pianist Khanh-Nhi Luong won Third Prize and The Lady Roslyn Lyons Bronze Medal at the 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition. Her programme opens with Beethoven’s calm, nature-inspired “Pastoral” Sonata before leaping headlong into Bacewicz’s lyrical and barbaric Piano Sonata No. 2, composed in 1953 at the height of Stalinist regional censorship. In the second half, Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin Suite is a touching, witty and nostalgic memorial to friends and family who died fighting in World War I. The recital ends with Ravel’s popular masterpiece Pavane pour une infante défunte, which expresses a longing for a long lost world of little princesses.

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Programme

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) – Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 “Pastoral”

Grażyna Bacewicz (1909 – 1969) – Piano Sonata No. 2

~Interval~

Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937) – Le Tombeau de Couperin, M. 68

Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937) – Pavane pour une infante défunte

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The artist

Praised as “a rising star of exceptional sensitivity and imagination,” Vietnamese pianist Khanh Nhi Luong won Third Prize and The Lady Roslyn Lyons Bronze Medal at the 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition. Recognized for her vivid artistry and commanding stage presence, she is a current recipient of the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and a scholar of the Imogen Cooper Music Trust. Her highly anticipated debut album will be released by Signum Records in Fall 2026, marking an exciting new chapter in her career.

The 2025/26 season features high-profile debut performances at London’s Wigmore Hall, The Venue in Leeds, Seoul’s Lotte Concert Hall, and the Grand Hall VNAM in Hanoi. Khanh Nhi will also make her debut as a soloist with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ipswich Symphony Orchestra, the Hanoi Philharmonic Orchestra, and the PAPA Youth Orchestra. An enthusiastic advocate for cultural diversity and new music, Khanh Nhi co-founded the Lunar New Year Piano Concert Series, which showcases music by Asian composers. The series has toured extensively across the United States (New York, Boston, Ann Arbor, Dexter) and Canada (London, Toronto).

She actively collaborates with renowned musicians and ensembles, having worked with violinists Ida Kavafian, Hye-jin Kim, Elena Urioste, Lorenz Gamma, and Youjin Lee, and has performed contemporary music with the ensemble Hand Werk. Her previous orchestral engagements include performances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, and the Sun Symphony Orchestra, appearing under the batons of Kenneth Kiesler, Domingo Hindoyan, Jayce Ogren, and Olivier Ochanine.

Prior to her Bronze Medal at The Leeds, Khanh Nhi garnered numerous accolades. These include prizes at the Yong Siew Toh Concerto Competition (2017), the Lee University International Piano Competition (2021), the MTNA National Piano Competition (2023), and the Sicily International Piano Competition (2023), which awarded her a five-concert tour across Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Following her participation in the 2023 Telekom Beethoven Piano Competition, she was invited for a solo recital at the prestigious Mozarteum University in Salzburg.

Born and raised in a musical family, Khanh Nhi began playing piano at the age of four. In 2014, she was the sole candidate selected from Southeast Asia to receive a full scholarship to study at the Kunstuniversität Graz in Austria, where she performed across Austria, Germany, and Denmark. She later earned her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance on full scholarship at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (Singapore), followed by a Master of Music at the University of Michigan, where she also completed her Doctor of Musical Arts. Her teachers include Lan Huong Ngo, Prof. Otto Niederdorfer, Prof. Thomas Hecht, and Prof. Christopher Harding.

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The venue

Manchester’s International Anthony Burgess Foundation, located in a magnificent example of industrial architecture at Chorlton Mill, offers an intimate, trendy setting for our concerts. Grab a drink from the licensed Burgess Bar, and experience this extraordinary programme performed on Burgess’ own Bösendorfer grand piano.

One of Manchester’s greatest cultural figures, Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) was a prolific novelist, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. Perhaps best known for his challenging and hugely influential novel A Clockwork Orange, he also composed hundreds of musical works.