Anton Nel - Chopin & Friends
Solo works for piano performed on an 1855 Érard grand piano
Anton Nel, piano
Draft Beer provided by Lazarus Brewing
Friday, January 15, 2027 at 7:30 pm
$40 General | $35 Senior 60+ | $10 Student
Redeemer Presbyterian Church
2111 Alexander Ave
Austin, TX 78702
Winner of the 1987 Naumburg International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall, Anton Nel continues to tour internationally as recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. Highlights in the US include performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle, and Detroit Symphonies as well as recitals coast to coast. Overseas he has appeared at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and major venues in China, Korea, Canada, and South Africa. Much sought after as a chamber musician, he regularly appears with some of the world’s finest instrumentalists and singers on four continents. A gifted and dedicated teacher, Anton Nel is the Head of the Division of Keyboard Studies and holder of the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair at the University of Texas at Austin; in September 2025 he also joined the faculty of the Glenn Gould School in Toronto. During the summers he is on the artist-faculty at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and regularly teaches at the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival and the fortepianist each season. His recordings include numerous solo CDs, chamber music recordings (including the complete Beethoven and Brahms cello/piano works with Bion Tsang), and works for piano and orchestra by Franck, Fauré, Saint-Saens, and Edward Burlingame Hill. The Johannesburg-born Mr. Nel is a graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand, where he studied with Adolph Hallis, and the University of Cincinnati where he worked with Bela Siki and Frank Weinstock. He was inducted into the Steinway Teacher Hall of Fame in New York in 2019 and the Austin Arts Hall of Fame in 2025. His website is antonnel.com.
The Érard Piano
We are very pleased to bring an 1855 Érard grand piano for the listening pleasure of our Arts on Alexander patrons. The instrument is on loan from Josef Hunt, head of technical services for the Steinway Gallery in Austin and San Antonio.
Founded in Paris in 1780, the Érard firm became the most prestigious French piano manufacturer of the 19th century. The Érard played in this concert was made in Érard’s London shop.
The mid-19th Century featured the last of the fortepianos and the beginning of the modern piano. Érard invented the double escapement action that is now used in all modern grand pianos.
Famous Érard piano owners include:
Marie Antionette
Beethoven
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
Mendelssohn
Chopin
Liszt
Verdi
Wagner
Ravel
Clara Schumann
Debussy
Napoleon III