Lancaster International Piano Festival Concert Series Returns to The Trust Performing Arts Center for 2025-26 - Lancaster Chamber of Commerce

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Lancaster International Piano Festival Concert Series Returns to The Trust Performing Arts Center for 2025-26

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LANCASTER, Pa. (Aug.11, 2025) – This season, the Lancaster International Piano Festival will return to The Trust Performing Arts Center in downtown Lancaster with four concerts featuring internationally renowned musicians.

Kicking off the series at The Trust, 37. N. Market St., will be violinist Peter Winograd and pianist Xun Pan, performing at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 13.

Winograd gave his first solo public per­for­mance at the age of 11 and at 17 was accepted as a scholar­ship student of Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School. Re­cog­nized early as an ex­cep­tion­ally prom­is­ing young artist, Winograd was a top prize winner in the 1988 Naumburg Inter­na­tional Violin Competition. He then made his New York debut to critical acclaim and has since appeared as a guest soloist with numerous orchestras and in recitals across the country and abroad. Winograd has been a mem­ber of the violin and chamber music faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and the Aspen Music School since 1990.

Born into a gifted musical family, Winograd began his studies with his parents. His mother was a pro­fes­sion­al pianist, and his father was the founding cellist of the Juilliard Quartet and a conductor of the Hartford Symphony in Connecticut, where Winograd grew up. He holds bach­e­lor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard. His wife, violinist Caterina Szepes, is a member of the Metropolitan Opera Or­ches­tra.

Highlights of the Chinese-American pianist Xun Pan’s recent chamber music concerts include collaborating with the American String Quartet, Hai-Ye Ni, Priscilla Lee, Dara Morales and the Gabriel Chamber Ensemble. He finished a 15-city concert tour in 30 days in China in May/June 2024, and as a Steinway Artist, he was inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame in 2023.

Pan received his early musical training from his grandmother and pianists-parents, Pan Yiming and Ying Shizhen. He continued his studies at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Syracuse University in New York and earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

He has won many international piano competitions and awards, performing solo recitals worldwide from Carnegie Weill Hall to the Beijing National Center for Performing Arts. He has also performed in Brussels, Boston, Budapest, Frankfurt, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, New York, Pyongyang, Salzburg, San Francisco, San Jose, Seoul, Shanghai, Sicily, Singapore, Taipei, Toronto, Washington, D.C., and many other locales worldwide.

The noted chamber musician and founding member/co-artistic director of the Lancaster International Piano Festival is also the pianist of the Newstead Trio, Trio Clavino and Gabriel Chamber Ensemble. He has served as a judge in many competitions and is the Director of Keyboard Studies of The Tell School of Music at Millersville University and is a visiting professor at many universities and conservatories in China.

The Lancaster International Piano Festival concert series continues with pianist Miao Gao at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 7 at The Trust.

Gao started his musical study from a very young age. In 2012, Gao was accepted by the middle school attached to the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he began his professional piano study with Yun Guo. In 2018, he was admitted by China Conservatory of Music, studying under Professor Wei Zhang. By 2022, he was admitted to the Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Professor Alexander Kobrin.

Gao has been invited to perform at many professional and academic events, including the 2023 Lancaster International Piano Festival, the Second Piano Education Seminar in China and the Steinway 165th Anniversary Celebration at Steinway House in Beijing. The pianist has also earned top spots at numerous major competitions throughout the world, including the Ferruccio Busoni international piano competition, the Shigeru Kawai International Piano Competition, the Huang Long International Music Festival Piano Competition, the Khachaturian International Piano Competition, the Steinway Youth Piano Competition and the Golden Bell Awards.

To welcome spring, Trio Chimera will continue the concert series at 7:30 p.m. March 20 at The Trust.

Trio Chimera consists of Marta Ceretta on piano, Stefano Raccagni on violin and Giorgio Lucchini on cello. “Chimera” is known as a creature from Greek mythology, but the name also serves as a tribute to Robert Schumann’s “Grillen” as well as to the poem “La Chimera” by Italian writer Dino Campana.

The trio members obtained master’s degrees in chamber music, studied with the Quartetto di Cremona at the Stauffer Center for Strings and completed postgraduate degrees at the Conservatorio A. Boito in Parma. Trio Chimera is an official member of the European Chamber Music Academy and in 2022 was awarded Best Italian Ensemble at the Filippo Nicosia International Chamber Music Competition, also taking honors at the Luigi Nono International Competition and the Lancaster International Piano Festival Competition.

The ensemble has performed in many European cities, with highlights in Barcelona, Budapest, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris and a concert in Addis Ababa with Simone Gramaglia coupled with a masterclass for the students of the Yared University of Music. In 2023, the Trio was the ensemble-in-residence for the International Composition Competition Finzi Academy at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan, and in 2025, received the commission of new pieces by the famous Italian composer Fabio Vacchi.

Closing the 2025-26 Lancaster International Piano Festival series will be pianist Dr. Eric Fung with three members of the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, performing at 7:30 p.m. April 25 at The Trust.

A Bach Prize winner from the Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig, Germany, Fung has performed in international festivals and concert series, including the Israel Festival in Jerusalem, European Piano Forum in Berlin, Puigcerda Music Festival in Spain, Philadelphia Bach Festival, Kamerman Piano Series in Pensacola, Fla., Hong Kong Arts Festival and Lancaster International Piano Festival.

The New York Times praised Fung’s pianism for being “refined and elegant.” The Hong Kong Economic Review called him “unique among the contemporary Chinese pianists, for the aesthetic of his music can be traced back to the study and passion for Bach’s works.” Fung holds degrees in piano performance and music theory pedagogy from the Eastman School of Music. The Steinway Artist received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School and is currently the Carmean Endowed Professor of Music in Piano Performance at Lebanon Valley College.

Joining Fung from the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra will be Dana Allaband on violin, Ken Bell on French horn and Luis Engelke on trumpet.

Allaband received degrees from West Chester University and the University of Maryland. She has concertized in Venezuela, Romania, Cameroon, Carnegie Hall and various universities across the country. The Principal Second Violinist of LSO for over a decade, she has served as concertmaster of several orchestras and symphonies and has performed with the Reading Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Annapolis Symphony and Pennsylvania Sinfonia. An active chamber musician, Allaband is currently a violinist with the Gabriel Chamber Ensemble, Monteverde String Quartet, Mill Race Collective and was a member of Elysian Camerata for many years. She has taught at Millersville University and is currently Assistant Director of Sunday Sinfonia at Albright College.

Bell has degrees from Eastman School of Music and Catholic University of America. He is currently Principal Horn for LSO and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. For 24 years, Bell played regularly with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, including three European tours and several Carnegie Hall appearances. Also a member of two premier military bands, Bell toured the U.S. and Europe as Principal Horn with several Broadway shows, including “Cats” and “West Side Story.” He is presently the hornist at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, where he will perform “Wicked” in 2025-26. A retired Professor of Horn at Gettysburg College and freelance musician in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, Bell also serves on the Musician’s Committee of the Lancaster Symphony and Baltimore Chamber Orchestras.

Engelke is Professor of Trumpet at Towson University and Principal Trumpet with the Lancaster, Kennett and Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestras, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and Shippensburg Music Festival. He performs over 100 engagements annually, and his solo albums have received critical acclaim. Engelke’s original music has been performed around the world, and in 2025 he was the recipient of the University System of Maryland’s Faculty Award for Creativity. Engelke has performed with over 50 professional orchestras as well as with diverse musicians and ensembles such as Andrea Bocelli, Celtic Woman, Irish Tenors, Manheim Steamroller and The Moody Blues. He has also published hundreds of articles in industry newsletters and journals and taught at several U.S. and international universities.

Since its postwar beginnings, the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra has sought to provide the vibrant arts community in Lancaster with outstanding performances, unique repertoire and educational services, rooted in a belief that music is fundamental to human industry and well-being.

The Lancaster International Piano Festival is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to the performance and teaching of classical music at the highest standard. The festival has welcomed participants from nearly 40 countries, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kosovo, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela and Vietnam. Learn more at lancasterpianofest.com.

Tickets for these performances will be available soon at lancastertrust.com or lbc.edu/events.


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In 1912, the Lancaster Trust Company finished its new headquarters—a Beaux Arts masterpiece from the imagination of Lancaster’s leading architect, C. Emlen Urban. A century later, Lancaster Bible College reimagined it into The Trust Performing Arts Center—a stunning venue for arts and culture in the heart of Lancaster. The Trust has a mission to honor God by encouraging excellence in the work of student and professional artists and by enriching the community through inspiring, challenging and redemptive experiences.

Founded in 1933, Lancaster Bible College provides an accredited university-level education for multiple careers with a focus on the Bible and a biblical worldview, Christ and Christian character. LBC’s mission is to educate Christian students to think and live a biblical worldview and to proclaim Christ by serving Him in the Church and society. In 2025, LBC introduced its new tagline, “Experience Different,” which highlights the college’s four key differentiators – biblical integration, authentic community, relational education and exceptional location.

Accredited through the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the Association for Biblical Higher Education Commission on Accreditation, LBC is also approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Association of Christian Schools International. Specialized accreditations are also in the areas of: Social Work (Council on Social Work Education), Music, Worship & Performing Arts (National Association of Schools of Music) and Sport Management (Commission on Sport Management Accreditation).

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