Ravel, Chopin & Kevin Chen: Piano, Ballet, and Beyond

A few things to know...

Reconnect with your inner child as you experience music that conjures the fantasy and nostalgia of fairy tales and a classic carnival ride. From Ravel’s storybook ballet to the sweeping romance of Chopin’s piano writing, this program will leave you feeling refreshed and filled with wonder.

Maurice Ravel was known for his childlike imagination, and in his ballet Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose), the French composer brings that childlike innocence to life with music of unbridled imagination. Get ready to step into the pages of classic children’s stories featuring Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb, and Beauty and the Beast as you take in Ravel’s glittering score.

Frédéric Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto is an intense journey of the heart, merging dazzling virtuosity with soaring operatic melodies. Under the direction of Ludovic Morlot, the brilliant young Canadian pianist Kevin Chen, Second prize winner at the 2025 International Chopin Piano Competition, returns to Southam Hall to bring his “beautiful sensitivity and remarkable mastery” (Diapason) to every note of the Polish composer’s music.

And Ana Sokolović conjures the nostalgia and naïve joy of childhood in her orchestral poem Ringelspiel (Merry-Go-Round), inspired by the classic carnival ride’s hypnotic motion and simplicity of movement.