Eight Months, 32 Sonatas, One Unforgettable Week
Reflecting on the Beethoven 32 Bicentennial Celebration
It was August 2025. I was at the piano, deep in a Beethoven piece, when something stopped me.
When I play the piano, or when I listen deeply to great music, I often feel that music opens a door to a place we cannot reach through ordinary language, somewhere beyond the surface of daily life, deeper, quieter, and sacred. It is a place where beauty and prayer exist side by side, where time seems to pause. In that space, we are no longer only thinking or listening; we are being changed. I long to share that place with others, almost like a tour guide pointing toward something wondrous and saying, “Come, listen. This is where music can take us.”
I wanted to share this music the way you want to share a delicious home-cooked meal. And if this music was worth sharing, why stop at one dish? What if every one of the 32 sonatas were performed, all of them, by 32 different pianists, in a single week, in honor of the bicentennial of Beethoven’s death?
Eight months later, that moment at the piano had become the Beethoven 32: Bicentennial Celebration.
Building It from Scratch
What followed was eight months of planning, phone calls, and the kind of behind-the-scenes work that never makes it into the program booklet. Coordinating 32 individual artists across two venues, Freeburg Pianos and Piano Emporium, brought something new to navigate nearly every week. And I loved every bit of it. Looking back, I am still moved by how smoothly and gracefully everything came together. There were moments that felt less like organizing and more like watching something unfold on its own.
What kept me going was the music itself. Beethoven’s 32 sonatas are not just a catalog. They are a life’s work, spanning nearly three decades, from the boldness of Op. 2 to the transcendence of Op. 111. Presenting them all, in sequence, felt less like programming and more like a pilgrimage.
The Week of April 19–25
The week arrived, and something shifted. The rooms filled. Pianists who had never met performed back to back, united by this shared repertoire. Audiences came for one evening concert and returned on consecutive nights. There was a particular energy in those rooms: focused, reverent, alive. We all felt it, as performers and as audience.
We were honored to receive media attention from WLOS Channel 13 ABC in Asheville, which covered the event and broadcast live from the venue during the performances.
What It Meant
The Beethoven 32 was a once-in-a-lifetime project. I knew it when the idea first came to me, and everyone who was part of it felt the same way. Performers and audiences alike considered it an honor to be in those rooms, part of something monumental.
This happened because people who care about music and community generously gave: their money, their time, their artistry. Donors, sponsors, performers, and audiences all came together around a shared vision, and that sense of unity made the whole week feel like something greater than any one of us. I am grateful to every donor, sponsor, and pianist who trusted this vision, to Freeburg Pianos for their partnership, and to the audiences who gave their undivided attention and shared so openly how deeply this event moved them.
More to come. The music continues.
