Prokofiev’s 2nd Piano Concerto and Barber’s Piano Concerto

Pianist Corey Hamm presents two masterworks from the 20th century: the 2nd Piano Concerto by Sergei Prokofiev, and Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto. The large Casavant Frères organ at St. Andrew's-Wesley plays the role of the orchestra, as performed by organist Angelique Po, while the church's “Heirloom” Steinway concert grand piano takes centre stage.

Bios:

Pianist Corey Hamm has premiered over four hundred solo, chamber, and concerto works by composers from all over the world such as Psathas, Finnissy, Rzewski, Ping, Chang, Hamel, among many others. He is the 2026 Honorary Fellow of the Royal Conservatory of Music along with such others as Oscar Peterson, Lang Lang, Yannick Nézet-Séguin. His recording of Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated! was critically acclaimed and included in the top four of International Piano Magazine’s July 2025 survey of all the existing recordings. The recording sparked Rzewski to write “Excellent! This may be the best recording!” Hamm had the privilege of working on all of the piano and chamber works of Dutilleux with the composer himself. Recent and upcoming concerto performances include Ligeti Piano Concerto, Prokofiev Piano Concertos 2 and 3, Barber Piano Concerto, Chang Gateways (double concerto for erhu and piano soloists), and Bartok Piano Concerto 2. His PEP (Piano and Erhu Project) produced three CDs and commissioned over eighty composers for this cross-cultural duo. Dr. Hamm is Professor of Piano at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where he won both the Killam Teaching Award, and the Dorothy Somerset Award for Artistic Excellence. His students have won First Prizes in numerous international and national piano competitions including most recently First Prizes at each of the 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition, 2025 Eckhardt-Gramatté Contemporary Piano Music Competition (First and Second Prizes, and Prize for Best Performance of the Required Work), 2023 Montreal International Piano Competition, 2022 Maria Canals, 2022 Hilton Head, and 2022 Paloma O’Shea Santander. His beloved teachers include Thelma Johannes-O’Neill, Dr. Ernesto Lejano, Dr. Stéphane Lemelin, Marek Jablonski, and Lydia Artymiw.

Angelique Po is an organist, pianist and continuo player living and working in Vancouver, BC. Her versatility and interest in a broad range of music styles have led her to collaborate with a variety of ensembles and soloists, as well as perform world premieres of many new works. This includes the Scottish premieres of Claude Vivier’s Les Communiantes and Jocelyn Morlock’s Premonition in 2022 at the University of Glasgow, and the world premiere of David Millard’s Requiem with Vivaldi Chamber Choir, also in 2022, for mezzo-soprano soloist, large choir, organ and string quartet. As the featured artist with trombonist Jeremy Berkman for Vancouver Pro Musica’s Sonic Boom 2021, she premiered ten new works written for trombone and organ by BC composers in an online concert in March 2021. She was featured again in Vancouver Pro Musica’s A Little Further Series in October 2021, playing eight world-premiere solo organ pieces. Angelique is the Director of Music and organist at St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church.

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