Hélène Grimaud – The Last Sonatas
**Events may have been canceled or postponed. Please contact the venue to confirm the event.
Date & Time
Mon, Dec 14 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Address (map)
33 E Canon Perdido St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Venue (website)
Lobero Theatre
CAMA 2026/2027 MASTERSERIES — The Lobero Theatre
MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2026, 7:30 PM
Hélène Grimaud, piano
Program: The Last Sonatas
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)
Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111
(c. 24 minutes)
FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828)
Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960
(c. 40 minutes)
Hélène Grimaud is the rare recitalist who makes a hall feel like a private room—an artist whose intensity is never manufactured, whose lyricism never turns ornamental. Her career has long moved on two parallel tracks: the international concert stage and a fierce commitment to the natural world. In the midst of major musical milestones, she founded the Wolf Conservation Center in New York—an emblem of the way her life and artistry insist on purpose as well as beauty.
In performance, Grimaud is known for a singular blend of architecture and spontaneity: lines that breathe, climaxes that arrive with inevitability, and a gift for turning silence into meaning. For those who have had the privilege of hearing her perform, she is more than a pianist; she is an alchemist of sound, transforming familiar works into something entirely new. In the Lobero’s warm acoustic, that approach becomes especially potent—every soft attack, every shift of color, every held resonance landing with intimate force.
This evening invites you into Grimaud’s world: a place where virtuosity serves expression, and where the piano becomes not just an instrument, but a voice.
