2025 Honens Gold Laureate Élisabeth Pion makes her Chamberfest debut, joined by the Ironwood Quartet. Hailed by Jon Kimura Parker for her "passion, insight, and emotional acuity," Pion captured the top prize at the 2025 Honens Competition, embodying the virtuosity, intellect, and humanity that lies at the core of the competition's mandate. She is the first Canadian to win the competition since Katherine Chi's victory in 2000.

This evening, Pion presents a programme featuring her own compositions alongside Liszt's virtuosic transcriptions of a selection of Schubert art songs, as well as a colourful paraphrase on the popular Brazilian song Aquarela do Brasil by Nikolai Kapustin. In the second half of the evening, Pion will be joined on stage by the Ironwood Quartet to perform César Franck's Piano Quintet, the work she chose for the finals of the Honens Competition with the Isidore String Quartet, which ultimately helped secure her the top prize.

Now at the beginning of her three-year tenure in the Honens Artist Development Program, Pion's schedule is already filling up quickly. She is preparing to record the complete Beethoven concertos with Arion Baroque Orchestra in Montreal, with many other exciting projects sure to follow. Join us for this talented young innovator's debut on the Chamberfest stage!

Artists:
Élisabeth Pion piano
Ironwood Quartet string quartet
Jessica Linnebach violin
Emily Kruspe violin
Carissa Klopoushak viola
Rachel Mercer cello

Programme:
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
(arr. Franz Liszt)
Der Müller und der Bach
Gretchen am Spinnrade
Auf dem Wasser zu singen
Erlkönig

Élisabeth Pion (b. 1996)
Balcony on a Wednesday night
Sept mers éparses
The Joy Factor

Ary Barroso (1903–1964)
(arr. Nikolai Kapustin)
Paraphrase on Barroso's Aquarela do Brasil for Piano, Op. 118

Intermission

César Franck (1822–1890)
Piano Quintet in F minor
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