St John's International Piano Series: Yuko Sano

Yuko Sano performs at the JdP Music Building at St Hilda's College on Saturday 31 October, as part of the St John's International Piano Series. It's one of the dates in the series' 2026-2027 season, which brings together some of the world's leading pianists across a programme that runs from Scarlatti and Mozart to Chopin's 24 Preludes and Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Past seasons have featured prize winners like Leeds International Piano Competition winner Junyan Chen, Van Cliburn gold medallist Vadym Kholodenko and BBC Young Musician Ryan Wang.

Sano gave her first international recital at the age of eight and has since performed across Europe, South America and Asia. She made her recital debut at Suntory Hall in Tokyo in April 2026 with this same programme, so this is a set she's already taken out on the road. It pairs Robert Schumann's love song Widmung, written for Clara on the eve of their long-delayed marriage, with Mozart, Chopin, and Scarlatti. There's also Bach's Chaconne, which Busoni transformed from a violin partita into a dramatic stand-alone piano piece.

Alongside the classics, the evening includes the UK premiere of Jacques Allen's A Plum's Haiku, which was awarded the Oxford-Japan Prize for Composition 2026. It's a nice bit of local connection to have a piece written for the city's own prize getting its first UK hearing here.

The concert runs from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm at the JdP Music Building, St Hilda's College, Cowley Place, Oxford, OX4 1DY. Tickets are £15 to £29, with a £1.50 booking fee per transaction.