About the Festival

Alexander Paley trained at the Moscow Conservatory and now lives in New York City, Paris, and Lithuania. He is widely recognized for his exceptionally broad and extensive repertoire of concerti and solo piano works, his dazzling technical prowess, and his convincing, personal interpretations. He keeps a full calendar, performing all over the world. 

Pianist Alexander “Sasha” Paley first visited Richmond in 1997 to perform with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. He had settled in New York City after defecting from the former Soviet Union in 1988. Yet as he told music reviewer Clarke Bustard, in Richmond, “For the first time I had a taste of American history. What America really is I found out here, not in New York.” Sasha fell in love with our city, and the Alexander Paley Music Festival was born.

After the bookstore, and except for the huge Tenth Anniversary bash held at the VCU Singleton Center, the Festival has been hosted by Richmond churches. The 2014 Festival was its first in its present venue, beautiful St. Luke Lutheran Church on Chippenham Parkway.

Musicians who have joined Sasha in the Festival include pianist Peiwen Chen (bio), who performs sometimes as a soloist, sometimes with her husband — Alexander Paley — in four-hands or two-piano works, violinist Amiram Ganz (bio); violinist Daisuke Yamamoto (bio), cellist Neal Cary (bio); clarinetist Charles West (ICA profile), James Ferree on French horn (RSO profile), violinist Marie-André Chevrette (bio); and others.

A handful of dedicated volunteers keep the Festival going. We don’t charge admission, but revenue from donations at the door and your contributions online go exclusively to the musicians and Festival expenses, such as transportation of the piano and printing materials such as flyers and programs. (The Festival is registered as an IRS 501(c)(3) organization.) One very important — and nonhuman — volunteer who often joins us is the concert grand piano, lent by Blüthner USA.

The Alexander Paley Music Festival mirrors Richmond’s unique blend of big city, small town. Festival performances by Mr. Paley and his fellow artists are big in ambition, big in scope of repertoire, and huge in virtuosity. Yet the Festival retains an intimacy that brings its audience into a golden circle possible only in passionate live performance. The venue, St. Luke Lutheran Church, puts audience and performers into a physical proximity closer than possible in most venues, creating a salon-like experience.