Legacy Arts International presents the 4th Season of Altamura Legacy Concerts, a series developed by pianist and artistic director Cristina Altamura. The first concert is November 1 at 4 p.m.
This 2026-27 season, the concerts will take place at three different venues that are important to the Princeton piano community. In addition to the series’ home venue at Princeton United Methodist Church, where guest artists perform on a restored 1924 Steinway B Grand, concerts will also be held at the Lewis Center for the Arts and the Steinway & Sons Princeton Showroom.
The November 1 event is in Lee Hall at the Lewis Center for the Arts, located on the University Campus at 122 Alexander Road, with a unique version of J.S Bach’s Goldberg Variations arranged for two pianos by the 19th century composer Josef Rheinberger. Altamura will be joined by Italian pianist Gianluca Luisi, first-prize winner of the 4th International J.S. Bach Competition. The pair have performed the work in several Italian cities. Bringing it to Princeton offers an opportunity for local “Goldberg enthusiasts” to hear it in this rarely played arrangement.
On Saturday, January 23 at 5 p.m., Steinway and Sons Gallery will host the concert at its Princeton showroom, 3495 Route 1. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Yiyun Li reads excerpts from her forthcoming book Music Against the Night, a work of historical fiction that dramatizes the life of composer John Field in the 19th century, and Altamura performs nocturnes by Field and Frederick Chopin. For two years, Li has been studying piano with Altamura in Princeton while writing this new book. Their relationship in the piano studio provided inspiration for Li’s descriptions of piano pedagogy and the music industry in early 19th-century Europe. A Q&A will follow, moderated by So– Percussion’s Adam Sliwinski.
Altamura and Li will also take the program to Rome in March as part of Li’s Rome Prize residency at the American Academy.
On Sunday, May 30, at 4 p.m., the venue is Princeton United Methodist Church on the corner of Nassau Street and Vandeventer Avenue. The program features 18-year-old cellist Daniel Dorn from the Royal Academy of Music in London. Dorn stops in Princeton as part of a U.S. tour to promote his debut album of J.S. Bach’s Unaccompanied Cello Suites which will be released on Evidence Classics in May 2027.
As part of its mission of mentorship and performance training, Legacy Arts regularly presents exceptional young musicians alongside affirmed international artists. For this concert, a quartet of young pianists age 10-17 will perform Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story Suite” arranged for 8-hands by jazz composer Derwyn Holder.
Altamura Legacy Concerts was created to feature world class artists who are close colleagues and collaborators of pianist Cristina Altamura. They visit Princeton to perform, teach masterclasses, and mentor LAI’s Youth Ambassadors. The series’ success depends heavily on the enthusiasm of a community of volunteers who have supported this educational concept over the last three seasons.
Admission to all concerts is by donations at the door via Venmo or cash. Proceeds benefit the LAI Youth Ambassadors Mentorship Program and the All-Abilities Music Creation Project. Visit legacyartsinternational.org.