Alexander Wienand - "Preludes an Improvisations“

In his solo program “Preludes and Improvisations,” Alexander Wienand takes the audience on a journey through the world of piano preludes, from Bach to Debussy and Ravel, all the way to Gershwin, Scriabin, and Kapustin. What makes this performance special is that he combines these pieces with his own compositions, improvisations, and arrangements of jazz standards, thereby revealing unexpected and sometimes astonishing sonic connections between the various eras and styles. What does Duke Ellington have to do with Claude Debussy? How does Bach’s counterpoint influence jazz today? Wienand provides concert-style answers to these questions and raises new ones. The composer-pianist has twice been awarded the Bavarian Art Promotion Prize and has won several piano competitions, such as the Steinway Piano Competition in Berlin. His ensembles and projects—spanning classical music, contemporary music, jazz, and improvised music—are active internationally and have received support from the Musikleben Foundation, the Tonkünstlerverband, the Kultursekretariat NRW, the Berlin Senate, and the Musikfonds.