Sophie Pacini starts the season with the Cuban-European Youth Academy and Duncan Ward, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3 in a dance programme on 1 September at Kurhaus Wiesbaden (Rheingau Musik Festival) and Konzerthaus Berlin on 3 September (Young Euro Classic Festival). The programme features Ibert’s Bacchanal, Jenny Peña Campo Field’s Cuban Suite(commissioned work by Rheingau Musik Festival) and Gershwin’s Cuban Overture. The Cuban European Youth Academy (“CuE”) is an innovative exchange and training programme for Cuban and European musicians founded by Thomas Hengelbrock and the Academy Balthasar Neumann in 2014. The participants from Europe and Cuba are continually working together in transatlantic orchestral projects and workshops, and are taught by renowned teachers. 

Sophie will then travel on to Mexico to make her Mexican debut. She performs a solo recital with works by Schubert, Liszt and Chopin at the Auditorio Blas Galindo as part of the Festival Internacional de Piano en Blanco y Negro on 7 September, followed by a masterclass on 8 September.