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The 2026 Honens Festival — Echoes & Transformations — has been shaped by a guest curator: 2003 Honens Laureate Winston Choi. It’s innovative, thoughtful, and unlike any Festival they’ve presented before.Across concerts, events, and a symposium, the 2026 Festival puts the piano at centre stage. Featuring six pianists and one violinist, the performances mix technology and music, expanding the piano's possibilities and sounds.
Explore events and buy your pass at honens.com/2026.
Four events will be presented at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre:
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SEPT. 10 — Dialogues with the Piano
Doors: 6:00 pm. Show: 7:00 pm.
Enjoy an evening blending live piano and digital performances. Using Steinway & Sons Spirio player piano technology, Winston Choi, Jon Kimura Parker, and Carter Johnson perform live alongside their own pre-recorded performance, creating layered musical dialogues where past and present coexist and voices multiply. This showcase of artists sharing the stage with their past selves is followed by an exploration of the expansive sounds of the piano.
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SEPT. 11 — Reverberations: Chopin Reframed
Doors: 6:00 pm. Show: 7:00 pm.
Experience a piano masterpiece … reimagined. Known for performances of imagination, intensity, and individuality, 2025 Honens Gold Laureate Élisabeth Pion returns to Calgary with Frédéric Chopin’s Études Op. 25. This time, she presents the piece with a poetic and fiery twist—interspersed with works of shimmering reflections and bold clarity from other composers.
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SEPT. 12 — Storytellers: Babar the Elephant
Doors: 10:00am. Show: 10:30 am.
Join us for a charming morning concert with Carter Johnson that brings Jean de Brunhoff’s The Story of Babar to life. Children and families are welcomed into Babar’s world in this charming, accessible introduction to classical music and storytelling.
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SEPT. 12 — Echoes in Motion
Doors: 6:00 pm. Show: 7:00 pm.
From the elegance of the Baroque court to the fire of the modern concert hall, dance forms take centre stage in this journey across centuries. Beginning with deconstructed versions of grand historical works leading to energetic modern pieces, each reimagines—with shifting combinations of violin, harpsichord, and piano from Winston Choi, Carter Johnson, Jon Kimura Parker, and MingHuan Xu—what it means to dance with both grace and fire.
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Event Venue
National Music Centre | Centre National de Musique, 850 - 4 Street SE,Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Tickets
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