May 2, 2024 will mark the 20th Anniversary of the grand opening of PianoForte’s showroom and organization. Although initially PianoForte Chicago, Inc. was founded as a piano store, PianoForte Foundation NFP, a 501c3 non-profit organization was being formed in parallel. The overarching mission has always been to be a center for piano and pianists and to foster a love for piano culture, piano literature, across all genres and types of performances.

Over the years, PianoForte has presented hundreds of live concerts, live radio broadcasts, live streams over YouTube and Facebook of classical, jazz and any contemporary forms of piano or piano including compositions.

We have also organized piano festivals (among them the Schubertiade), competitions, master classes, forums and amateur MeetUps, and hosted symposiums and seminars.

We have provided scholarships to students for free piano lessons, when they couldn’t afford them.

We have donated dozens of grand and upright pianos as well as digital pianos to schools, Chicago Public Schools and others, community centers and churches.

On May 2, 2004, our grand opening included the visit of Mr. Paolo Fazioli, maker of Fazioli pianos, the only maker that PianoForte represented at that time. Mr. Fazioli was featured on Chicago Tonight (WTTW TV), on WFMT 98.7 FM and in the press.

In order to celebrate our 20th Anniversary, PianoForte will hold an open door, free program of performances provided by pianists and musicians who have been closely involved with PianoForte over the last 20 years. RSVP is required.

Performers include:

6 pm hour

Yang and Olivia

Adam Neiman

Svetlana Belsky

7 pm hour

Matt Hagle

Ryan de Ryke and Daniel Schlosberg

Eugenia Cheng

Alexander Djordjevic

Ani Gogova

8 pm hour

Kuang-Hao Huang and Winston Choi

Tommy Muellner and Scott Mason

Bethany Pickens

9 pm hour

George McRae

Jeremy Kahn

Anthony Molinaro

We will also celebrate with some libations and conversation.