Composer-Pianist Igor Raykhelson to Mark 9/11’s 25th Anniversary With Free Concert in Tuscany

On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the American composer and pianist Igor Raykhelson will stand in the historic Piazza del Duomo in Pietrasanta, Tuscany. There he will perform the piece he wrote from his Manhattan home in the aftermath of the tragic events of that day.

The free, open-air concert, titled Armonie di Pace (“Harmonies of Peace”), pairs Igor Raykhelson with Ekaterina Astashova performing her violin. The evening is billed as a meeting point of classical repertoire and contemporary sensibility. At its center is a personal act of remembrance.

A career built on fusion

Born in Leningrad in 1961, Igor Raykhelson trained at the storied Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in Russia. He continued his musical education in New York, the city that would later reshape his creative direction. Over a career spanning both classical and jazz idioms, he has become known for a distinctive neo-romantic voice enriched by jazz harmony and improvisation. This is a fusion that has drawn collaborators including saxophonist Igor Butman, bassist Eddie Gomez, vibraphonist Joe Locke and violist-conductor Yuri Bashmet. His catalog spans numerous chamber and orchestral works, and he is now based in Tuscany, where he continues to compose and perform.

That crossover sensibility extends to his artistic partnership with Astashova, a graduate of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory who spent years as a first violinist in the orchestra led by Bashmet before turning, from 2010 onward, toward jazz and crossover projects. This has included works written expressly for her and collaborations with Butman.

A regular presence at festivals in Italy, Germany and Russia, Astashova joins Raykhelson not only on stage in Pietrasanta but as a co-organizer. They regularly develop festivals and concerts across Italy’s Versilia coast and beyond, building out between classical audiences and jazz-inflected new music.

The piece behind the date

The September 11 date for “Armonie di Pace” carries personal significance for Raykhelson. He was living in New York in 2001, and his experiences during that period later informed “Adagio,” a work he has described as a reflection on grief and memory. The piece premiered at Carnegie Hall in April 2003, with Yuri Bashmet as soloist, and has remained one of the most personally significant entries in Raykhelson’s catalog ever since.

In Pietrasanta, Raykhelson is expected to address the audience before performing the work, dedicating “Adagio” to the memory of the victims of 9/11 and their families, in what organizers describe as an especially meaningful moment in an evening featuring well-known works from the violin-and-piano repertoire.

What they say

“I wrote ‘Adagio’ because I had no other way to process what I had seen,” says Raykhelson. “Twenty-five years later, playing it in a piazza in Italy instead of a hall in New York, the meaning hasn’t changed as it’s still about turning grief into something we can share, and hopefully something closer to peace.”

Astashova adds: “The point of the program is for it to move between the languages of Bartók, Piazzolla, jazz, and the classical repertoire. Music doesn’t need a shared language to bring people together, and on a night like this one, that feels like the whole message.”

The program

Alongside Raykhelson’s Adagio, the evening moves through Béla Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances, Fritz Kreisler’s Liebesfreud, Tchaikovsky’s Mélodie, Pablo de Sarasate’s Romanza Andaluza, the Scherzo Brahms contributed to the F-A-E Sonata, Astor Piazzolla’s Oblivion, and Rodion Shchedrin’s Homage to Albéniz.

The program spans over a century of music and crosses classical, Romani-inflected and tango traditions alike.

Armonie di Pace takes place Friday, September 11, at 9:00pm in Piazza del Duomo, Pietrasanta, Italy. Admission is free.