A Piano for Freemasons Hall

Commercial 81 and Edmonton 7 present “A Piano for FMH”, a fundraiser event featuring a piano recital by concert pianist Emilio De Mercato. This fundraiser will support raising funds for the purchase and equipment of a grand piano in the historic Grand Ballroom located in Freemasons Hall.

This concert will be the final stop of Emilio De Mercato’s 2025 Piano Tour, including Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary, Ottawa, and Vancouver, ahead of his debut at the Carnegie Hall in New York, in May 9, 2025.

The program features piano solo works by Schumann, Liszt, and Mussorgsky. There is a common thread, and also a reference-link to Emilio’s country of origin, Italy. The common thread is that of pieces that are descriptive and/or inspired by extra-musical sources, be they literary or artistic-pictorial. The reference to Italy is made up of the diptych on Franz Liszt from the Years of Pilgrimage-Italy: Petrarch's Sonnet 104, and the Fantasia quasi Sonata “Après une lecture du Dante”. The latter is a tribute to the "Supreme Poet", Dante Alighieri, who was instrumental in establishing the literature of Italy, and is considered to be among the country's national poets and the Western world's greatest literary icons, on the 760th anniversary of his birth in 2025. Schumann's Kinderszenen Op.15 beautifully explore the innocent feelings and dreams of children. They contrast intimacy and refinement to the enormous sounds and transcendental technical virtuosity of Liszt, and of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, where a series of paintings are depicted in music through a visionary "walk", thus constituting complementarity.

Saturday, April 26, 2025

6:30 - pm cocktail - bar open

7:30 - pm concert - first half

8:10 - pm intermission

8:30 - pm concert - second half

9:00 - pm meet & greet with hors d'ourvres

Host or Publisher Freemason's Hall Edmonton