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I remember the first time I heard Oakland pianist Audrey Vardanega play. It was 2006, and she was debuting with the prestigious Midsummer Mozart Festival in Berkeley playing Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K.

467.” Related Articles She was only 11, by far the youngest solo performer in the festival’s 50-year history, but her musicality was that of a grown-up, world-class pianist. I was blown away.



Afterward, I asked the festival’s founder and artistic director, George Cleve, “How good is she for her age?” “Martin,” he said, laughing, “She’s good for any age!” Unlike the unhappy stories you hear about some child prodigies, she’s never outgrown her talent. She just kept learning and learning while scooping up as much wisdom and experience as she could, and today she’s at top of her game. The San Francisco Classical Voice calls her “musically eloquent .

.. with the kind of freedom, authority and strength that one expects from the world’s finest pianists.

” Audrey leads a bicoastal life these days, living in New York but returning to the Bay Area often to see her mom and look after her latest venture, Musaics of the Bay, which brings composers, performers and visual artists together for “musical mosaic” collaborations, as Audrey calls them. The visual artist creates something pictorial; the composer writes music that expresses it; and the performer performs it. Audrey will come home for a different reason this weekend, though.

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