Camerata Pacifica Principal Pianist Gilles Vonsattel takes centerstage, once again, for his second solo recital in three weeks in conjunction with “Beethoven 32,” on Friday, April 10, 7:00 pm, at Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West, and Sunday, April 12, 2026, 8:00 pm, at Zipper Hall in Downtown Los Angeles. “Beethoven 32” is the chamber music collective’s three-year Beethoven cycle featuring Vonsattel on all 32 of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas.
Vonsattel opens the recital with Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 7 in D Major, Op. 10, No. 3, an often-overlooked gem filled with emotional exploration. He also performs Piano Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp Major, Op. 78, “à Thérèse,” one of the composer’s own favorite sonatas, and the divine and mysterious Piano Sonata No. 28 in A Major, Op. 101.
Swiss-born American pianist Gilles Vonsattel boasts remarkable versatility and artistic originality. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2016 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, and top prizes in the Naumburg and Geneva competitions, he has graced prestigious stages worldwide, enthralling audiences with recitals and chamber performances, and collaborating with renowned orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic and the Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco symphonies. As a champion of new music, he has premiered compositions by celebrated composers such as Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, Anthony Cheung, and George Benjamin. He is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program and has earned degrees from Columbia University and the Juilliard School. Today, Vonsattel shares his passion for music as a Professor of Piano at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
For tickets ($35/$75) and information, visit www.cameratapacifica.org.
