• Monday, December 4, 7:30 pm
• The Menil Collection
• Doors open at 7 PM.
• This event is at capacity and we are no longer taking reservations. On the day of the performance, additional walk-up seating may be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors open at 7:00 PM. Unfilled seats will be released at 7:20 PM.

BEETHOVEN FOR ALL: THE PIANO SONATAS: December 4-16

DACAMERA’s popular free Beethoven for All series returns! Twenty sonatas spanning Beethoven’s lifetime – some of the most thrillingly inventive piano music ever composed, performed by leading Houston pianists

Pianists Andrew Staupe and Mei Rui kick off DACAMERA’s free Beethoven for All series with sonatas including Beethoven’s first, the Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1.

Andrew Staupe
Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1
Sonata No. 25 in G Major, Op. 79
Sonata No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 1

Mei Rui
Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp Major, Op. 78
Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57, “Appassionata”

Pianist Andrew Staupe is emerging as one of the distinctive voices of a new generation of pianists. Andrew has appeared as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Utah Symphony, Arkansas Symphony, Tallahassee Symphony, and many other orchestras throughout the United States. He has collaborated with distinguished conductors Osmo Vänskä, Bobby McFerrin, Jahja Ling, Gerard Schwarz, Andrew Litton, Cristian Macelaru, Larry Rachleff, Lucas Richman, Rossen Milanov, Daniel Hege, and Josep-Caballé Domenech, and has performed across the United States and extensively in Europe. An avid chamber musician, Andrew is a part of the newly-formed Trio Magnoliana, with violinist Mann-Wen Lo and cellist Eunghee Cho.

Dr. Mei Rui is a Yale-trained molecular biochemist and an internationally award-winning concert pianist. Medalist of the World Piano Competition in 2015, Dr. Rui was praised by the Boston Globe as a “riveting” virtuoso, and by Boston Musical Intelligencer as a concert artist with “deeply felt and intense musicality.” Her recent performances include all the Rachmaninoff Concerti with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Yale Philharmonic, World Doctors Orchestra, and TMC Orchestra. As a principal investigator, Dr. Rui is a pioneer in the field of Music Medicine. She is an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and the Director of the Music-in-Medicine Initiative at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Beethoven for All Sponsors: Ron Franklin and Janet Gurwitch