Grand Piano Series is a non-profit concert and education organization committed to presenting and preserving extraordinary music repertoire. Through memorable concerts with world-class international artists, dynamic educational initiatives for all ages, engaging online programs, and impactful community outreach, we make great music accessible to all.
The Grand Piano series was founded in April 2016 by Milana Strezeva (our current President) and Raniero Tazzi. The mission was defined by the end of 2017 and since has evolved to better recognize the importance of diversity to accomplish the music preservation and community enrichment goals. Early concerts often included discussions or short lectures and established close family-like connections within our audience that continue today. This shared cultural experience, and social connection is the essence of community enrichment. Though we are well known for exceptional quality concerts, our commitment to enriching our community and building strong connections with a diverse audience remains our focus as we grow our musical family.
GROWTH, CHALLENGES, AND ADAPTATION
Our concert audience has steadily grown over seven concert seasons, and our community engagement has grown with it. Starting in a small piano store recital room in 2016, our program grew to a formal series with a 250-seat capacity by late 2018. Unfortunately, COVID-19 forced an abrupt halt to live concerts in March 2020. Through the COVID-19 lockdown, we reinvented our program to include multiple online options. We also transported our piano to outdoor venues to present concerts with socially-distanced seating. With school access blocked, we focused on planning with school administrators to prepare for post-lockdown school programs. By late 2021 we emerged from this period in solid financial condition with organized business management tools, a clear plan for expanded school engagement, and a loyal base of supporters.
SUCCESS AND A PROMISING FUTURE
Returning to live concerts in late 2021 included a larger (780-seat) venue to allow COVID-spaced seating. This helped regain audience confidence even through waves of COVID variants. By the end of that season, we had presented concerts to a live audience of 2500 and completed over 4000 student days of in-school engagement. In 2022, our concert audience grew to over 3000, and we completed 6000 student-days engagements.
Looking ahead, collaborations are an important part of our plans. As we continue building our program, we are excited by the prospect of working with others to help diversify our community’s arts scene and enhance the variety of classical music available.
Our vision is to connect our community to the richness and beauty of classical music and inspire all ages through world-class performances and informative discussions. We commit to preserving and presenting great music literature featuring artists of the highest caliber and enriching our community through active outreach, offering free performances to underserved populations, student programs, masterclasses, and lectures. We encourage artists to present well-known compositions along with rarely performed repertoire to promote a deeper audience understanding and appreciation of threatened literature.
The real threat is that musical literature not regularly performed will fade from view and ultimately be lost. Keyboard literature, in particular, has a long history and provides a record of musical evolution throughout Western culture from 1360. With such a long history, the volume of classical keyboard music is vast. Private collections of some of this literature and the occurrence of multiple European and World wars resulted in the fragmentation of several music collections. Occasionally lost compositions surface as ongoing research uncovers old collections or individual works.
Many of these compositions have never been heard by anyone living today. In addition, the volume of literature is so large that many works in the known literature have never been recorded and are rarely performed. Many will simply be lost without an active effort to preserve and perform these compositions. The preservation of fine literature in such danger is a driving force behind the Grand Piano Series.
In addition to presenting familiar works for audience enjoyment, we include outstanding compositions that are rarely (if ever) performed to broaden our audience’s appreciation and bring life to dormant compositions. To enhance audience appreciation and understanding, informative introductions addressing these pieces are typically incorporated into our performances.
We have developed a classification system for music literature patterned after the International System for the Conservation Status of Plant and Animal Species. This classification helps us communicate the status of each piece performed in our concerts regarding the rarity of performance and the potential threat to extinction from the music repertoire. The risk of a musical composition fading from the repertoire through lack of performance is a threat we are determined to address!
Let’s imagine a world where musical compositions are treated like endangered species, and their conservation status is defined just like the International System Index defines the status of plants and animals.
In our concert program, each piece performed by our talented artists is accompanied by a chart that shows how often that composition is played worldwide. Use this handy guide to see the status of the pieces in our concert lineup. We’re on a mission to save some compositions from fading away if they are not performed enough. So, join us at the Grand Piano Series and help prevent musical extinction!
– Raniero Tazzi, Co-Founder
St Leo Auditorium
28290 Beaumont Rd
Bonita Springs, FL 34134
Grand Piano Series
3330 Crossings Ct 301
Bonita Springs, FL 34134
Grand Piano Series does not discriminate on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, parental status, or disability in any of its programs, services, employment, or activities. ♿ All of our events are accessible.
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