A reimagined Mozart piano concerto gets its Bay Area premiere Saturday, July 25, when the Redwood Symphony performs its "Summer Classics 2026" season finale at Cañada College Main Theatre in Redwood City.
Composer-pianist Timo Andres rewrote Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 26, known as the "Coronation," replacing the left-hand piano part entirely and adding new cadenzas. Mozart left large sections of the left hand unnotated, intending to improvise them in performance. Andres filled those gaps with 21st-century invention. On his website, he described the project as "a sprawling playground for pianistic invention and virtuosity, taking cues from the composer-pianist tradition Mozart helped to crystallize."
Music director Eric Kujawsky, who founded the all-volunteer orchestra in 1985 after earning his doctorate in conducting from Stanford University, told the San Mateo Daily Journal that Saturday's performance marks the first time Andres' version has been played in the Bay Area.
Pianist Louise Costigan-Kerns will perform the concerto as soloist. A member of the piano faculty at Stanford University and a voice and opera coach at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Costigan-Kerns has performed with orchestras across the Bay Area, including the Palo Alto Philharmonic and the Santa Cruz Symphony. She maintains a private studio in San Carlos.
Andres, born in Palo Alto in 1985, has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His work "The Blind Banister" was a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist, and he received a 2024 Tony Award nomination for his orchestrations of Sufjan Stevens' "Illinoise" on Broadway. He is on the composition faculty at the Mannes School of Music in New York.
The program also includes Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes and Beethoven's Symphony No. 1. The Redwood Symphony's program notes describe the Prokofiev as a "merry klezmer romp" and note that Beethoven wrote his First Symphony at about age 30 as "a calling card to the Vienna establishment."
The concert closes the Redwood Symphony's 41st season. The orchestra, based in Redwood City, is made up entirely of unpaid volunteer musicians.
Doors open for a pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m., with the performance at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $35 for adults; children under 18 are admitted free with an adult. Tickets are available at redwoodsymphony.org.
If you go
- What: Redwood Symphony "Summer Classics 2026"
- When: Saturday, July 25, 7:30 p.m. (pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m.)
- Where: Cañada College Main Theatre, 4200 Farm Hill Blvd., Redwood City
- Tickets: $35 adults; free for children under 18 with an adult
- Info: redwoodsymphony.org
