NOTE: Names of ADVANCE ticket buyers will be on a list at the door for check-in!

     Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff Piano Works

     Solo and Duet Piano works by these two singular world-famous Russian composers will be performed by a rotating assortment of local Bay Area pianists along with international guest artists from Tokyo and Toronto. The music will be presented in two sets with a brief intermission in  between, beginning at 3:30 PM, with the second set starting at 4:30 PM. The 16 performers come mostly from the San Francisco Bay Area, with guests from Toronto, Canada. They include Silicon Valley engineers, lawyers, accountants, actuaries, public relations professionals, etc. Many of them have competed in prestigious international competitions for amateur pianists and many are top prize winners. 
     The event's producer, renowned Bay Area pianist and educator Dr. Gwendolyn Mok, will present the net proceeds from this fundraising event to a major international charity, as she did last year after a sold-out similar event featuring the complete solo piano works of Maurice Ravel.

Sample bios of some of the performers
     Sean Sutherland, born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, discovered the piano as a child and was immediately drawn to it. At age 15, he earned a scholarship to a Royal School of Music but had to decline to finish high school. Despite limited access to training, he continued to pursue his love for the instrument. He later studied at MIT, earning degrees in music, electrical engineering, and computer science. After professional work, he completed an MBA at McGill and a master’s in Learning and Design Technologies at Stanford. Sean founded a tutorial service, lectured at McGill, and now works in Toronto as a Product Manager.
     Alongside his career, Sean has performed internationally as an amateur pianist, including with the National Steel Symphony Orchestra. He was a Van Cliburn Amateur semifinalist, competed in Europe, and won the 2021 Chopin Amateur Competition in Warsaw. That same year, he received the Anthony Sabga Caribbean Award for Excellence in the Arts and Letters.
     Rebecca Wang was born in Hong Kong, and immigrated to the US at age 13. She started studying piano at age 7, graduated from MIT with a degree in Computer Science, and worked for 20 years as an actuary in New York and Hong Kong. She now lives in San Francisco with her husband and son. Rebecca won third prize at the 5th International Fryderyk Chopin Competition for Amateur Pianists in 2021 in Warsaw, Poland. She has also competed at the 2016 Cliburn International Amateur Competition. She has given many solo piano recitals, including at the National Recital Halls in Taipei and Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 2024, and in Tokyo, Japan in 2016 and 2019. Rebecca enjoys painting in oil, watercolor, gouache and digitally, as well as hiking, such as to Everest Base Camp, Patagonia, Tour du Mont Blanc, and the Dolomites.
     Shiori Kiriake, a native of Japan, has received numerous prizes as a pianist, including First prizes at the Boston International Piano Competition and the International Amateur Piano Competition held in Tokyo. She has performed widely as a recitalist in the US and Japan and has performed at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, with members of the Berlin Philharmonic at Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and as a concerto soloist at the California Concerto Festival and Piano Texas 2025. Currently living in Northern California, she is a student of John McCarthy, Director Emeritus at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In addition to her musical pursuits, Ms. Kiriake holds a degree in Education from Kyoto University and works as the PR Lead at AltX Research KK, a blockchain startup. 
     Ken Iisaka, a native of Japan, began playing piano at age one, but he did not learn to play with his hands until age four. He once dreamed of becoming a concert pianist, but eventually followed his second love as a profession: computer programming. He obtained a degree in AI, and has worked as a software engineer in international finance and technology. Piano remains his passion, and he has performed in Russia, Germany, Italy, Poland, Canada, Japan, and China, as well as on both coasts of the US, championing lesser known composers such as Alkan and Medtner. He was three times a finalist at the Cliburn Amateur, and a winner at competitions in Washington, DC, Cremona, Italy, and St. Petersburg, Russia. Iisaka lives near San Francisco with his partner, Yvonne Liu, surrounded by 4 pianos and Orpheus, a Bernedoodle.
     David Lee fell in love with music after immigrating to the US at age ten from Taiwan and asked his parents for piano lessons two years later. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Stanford University and a master’s from Northwestern University. He has been a prize-winner at the Piano Link International Amateurs Competition, Piano Bridges Competition for Amateur Pianists, San Diego International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, and the Washington International Piano Artists Competition. He also competed at the 2016 Cliburn International Amateur Competition. When not enjoying music, he works as a software engineer, tends to his roses and enjoys playing the Pokémon theme with his eight year-old twins on the piano.