St Giles Cathedral plays host to the inaugural Edinburgh Royal Mile International Piano Series. This exciting and prestigious new concert series will feature all 32 of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas throughout 2024. Featuring exceptional performances from leading UK and international pianists, these concerts will be an unrivalled opportunity to enjoy some of the world's greatest piano repertoire, as curated by our guest performers. Set in the stunning candlelit venue of St Giles Cathedral, with it's newly installed Steinway Grand Piano, this will be a musical experience to remember! St Giles is situated in the heart of the Royal Mile with many bars and restaurants nearby to complete your evening.

Featuring 
Hiroaki Takenouchi (piano)

Programme 
Beethoven: Sonata in A, Op.101
Schubert: Sonata in B flat, D960

About  Hiroaki Takenouchi 

Heralded by The Times as “just the sort of champion the newest of new music needs”, while being praised as “impeccable in his pianism and unfailing in his idiomatic grasp” by Gramophone, Takenouchi’s curiosity and a natural penchant for integrity makes his playing and vast repertoire unique amongst his generation of pianists. His love for the music of classical masters – particularly Haydn, Beethoven and Chopin – sits side by side with his passion for the music of Medtner, lesser-known British composers such as Sterndale Bennett and Parry, and the contemporary repertoire. As a soloist, Takenouchi has appeared on many concert platforms including Wigmore Hall, Tokyo Opera City and the South Bank Centre. He has also performed at festivals in Bath, Cheltenham and Salzburg and given recitals in the UK, Japan, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy and Canada. His more unusual projects have included a recital for the Rarities of Piano Repertoire Festival in Husum (Germany), a BBC Four documentary The Prince and the Composer on the life and music of Parry alongside the then Prince of Wales, and BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the Week, for which Hiroaki has recorded solo piano works by William Sterndale Bennett and Alexander Campbell Mackenzie.