Alexander Doronin Piano -

On the night of the festival his suitcase smelled of starch and soap. The hall was cavernous, lights like small moons over an audience that seemed made of glass. Alexander waited in a dim corridor while other performers tuned their confidence into bows and measured breaths. He remembered the first child he had taught to play, how the boy’s thumbs would wander like lost lambs before they learned to follow. He remembered the seamstress’s cat, circling his knees, and the way the steam on the street had once painted halos around the lampposts.

: He has performed challenging works such as Stravinsky’s Piano Sonata (1924) , Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Schumann , and Barber’s Sonata, Op. 26 at venues like Leighton House. alexander doronin piano

– He uses silence masterfully. Between the two movements of Schumann’s Fantasiestücke , Op. 12, his rests feel like held breaths. In lesser hands, these gaps become dead air; in Doronin’s, they become dramatic punctuation. On the night of the festival his suitcase