Jonathan Mak

About

Musique Royale presents pianist Jonathan Mak at Cecilia’s Retreat in Mahone Bay on Saturday November 21 at 11 am. His program is a captivating journey through dreams, fantasy and imagination, with music by Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms. Winner of the 2024 Concours international de musique de Sorel-Tracy and named one of CBC’s “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30,” Mak brings remarkable virtuosity and wonder to the hourlong program.

Program

The Enchanted Night is a journey into the mysterious worlds of dreams, fantasy, and imagination. From the quiet reverie of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata to the shifting dreamscapes of Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, the music unfolds like fragments of memory and fantasy. These works invite us into places where the boundaries between reality and imagination dissolve, and where the mind wanders freely between wonder and unease.

Dreams can carry us from peaceful reflection into worlds that are strange, vivid, and sometimes unsettling. In the legendary tale of Erlkönig, the listener is swept into a supernatural journey where fear, illusion, and fate intertwine. Even the program’s most virtuosic moments are shaped by storytelling and transformation, reflecting the Romantic fascination with dreams, myth, legend, and the unseen.

The program concludes with Brahms’ Third Piano Sonata, a youthful and passionate work in which tenderness, longing, and drama coexist. Its slow movement evokes two lovers united beneath the moonlight, while a recurring fate motif haunts the surrounding movements.

About Jonathan Mak

Toronto-born pianist Jonathan Mak has appeared as a soloist with orchestras and at major festivals across North America and Europe. Recent concerto engagements include Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières, Kingston Symphony Orchestra, and the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra. Having made his orchestral debut at the age of four, he has also performed with ensembles including the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra.

Jonathan is the winner of the inaugural 2024 Concours international de musique de Sorel-Tracy and the Grand Prize at the 2023 Bader & Overton Canadian Piano Competition, as well as the Grand Prize at the 2023 Plowman Chamber Music Competition with Trio Menil. Additional honours include prizes at the Ljubljana Festival International Piano Competition (Slovenia), the Maj Lind International Piano Competition (Finland), and the OSM Competition.

Named one of CBC Music’s “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30,” Jonathan is a recipient of the Michael Measures Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award, and the Walter Prystawski Prize. He has appeared at festivals including Bravo! Vail, Festival of the Sound, Ottawa Chamberfest, and the Edinburgh International Festival. Jonathan is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Rice University with Jon Kimura Parker. He holds degrees from Yale University and the Cleveland Institute of Music and is a 2025–2026 Rebanks Fellow at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory.