This concert is sponsored by the Aylesbury Vale Arts Council.

Stephen Kovacevich has had a long and distinguished career as a concert pianist. His interpretations of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Schubert are renowned.

His recordings of Beethoven's Sonatas Op.53, 78 & 110, and Op.13, 14 & 22 were nominated for the instrumental category of the 1994 and 1999 Gramophone Awards. He has recorded both Brahms Piano Concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Sawallisch: the first concerto was nominated for a Grammy Award and won the 1993 Gramophone Award and the Stereo Review Record of the Year, while his recording of the second Brahms concerto won the Diapason d'Or. Of his recording of the Beethoven Sonata Op.111, The New York Times wrote that "his performance is exact and melancholic at the start, unfolding organically, coherently, with a tender Arietta that ends up heaven-storming." Over the last ten years Kovacevich has recorded the complete Beethoven sonatas, issued as a box set by EMI, for whom he records exclusively.

In addition to his solo work, Kovacevich enjoys good relations with orchestras as a conductor and by directing from the keyboard. He has directed the London Mozart Players, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in this way. Chamber music partners include Steven Isserlis, Nigel Kennedy, Lynn Harrell, Sarah Chang, Gautier Capucon, Renaud Capucon, Kyung-Wha Chung and Emmanuel Pahud.